<0^"snii^ 


MAR   7  1914 


A. 


*x*VS 


iSX 


BM    525    .P52    1913 

Pick,  Bernhard,  1842-1917. 

The  cabala 


THE  CABALA 


THE  CABALA 

ITS  INFLUENCE  ON 
JUDAISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY 


BERNHARD  PICK,  Ph.D.  D.D. 


CHICAGO  LONDON 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

191$ 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1913 


CONTENTS 

chap.  page 

Foreword 3-8 

I.  Name  and  Origin  of  The  Cabala  9-15 

II.  The  Development  of  The   Ca- 
bala in  the  Pre-Zohar  Period  16-44 

III.  The  Book  of  Zoiiar  or  Splendor  45-53 

IV.  The  Cabala  in  the  Post-Zohar 

Period 54-65 

V.  The  Most  Important  Doctrines 

of  The  Cabala        .         .         .  66-94 

VI.  The  Cabala  in  Relation  to  Juda- 
ism and  Christianity    .         .  95-109 

Bibliography       ....  110-111 

Index 113 


THE  CABALA 


THE  CABALA. 

Foreword. — Although  the  Cabala  belongs  to 
the  past,  it  nevertheless  demands  our  attention 
on  account  of  the  interest  taken  in  it  by  men  like 
Raymond  Lully,  the  "Doctor  Illuminatus"  as  he 
was  styled  (died  1315)  :  John  Picus  di  Miran- 
dola  (1463-1494);  John  Reuchlin  (1455-1522); 
Cornelius  Henry  Agrippa  von  Nettesheim  ( 1486- 
1535)  ;  John  Baptist  von  Helmont  (1577-1644)  ; 
the  English  scholars  Robert  Fludd  (1574-1637) 
and  Henry  More  (1614-1687).  How  much  The- 
ophrastus  Paracelsus  (1493-1541)  and  Jacob 
Boehme  (1575-1624),  called  "Philosophus  Teu- 
tonicus,"  were  influenced  by  cabalistic  doctrines, 
is  difficult  to  state.  At  any  rate  the  names  men- 
tioned before  are  sufficient  to  call  attention  to  a 
theosophical  system  which  has  engaged  the 
minds  of  Jewish  and  Christian  scholars. 

It  is  surprising  how  scanty  the  English  liter- 
ature is  on  the  Cabala.  True  that  in  the  History 
of  the  Jews  by  Basnage,  London,  1708,  we  have 


THE   CABALA 

a  lengthy  account  of  this  theosophy  (pp.  184- 
256)  ;  but  this  account  is  originally  given  in  the 
French  work  Histoire  des  Juifs,  by  the  same  au- 
thor. John  Gill  (died  1771)  in  his  "Dissertatio 
de  genuina  Punctorum  Vocalium  Hebraicorum 
Antiquitate,  contra  Cappellum,  Waltonwm"  etc., 
prefixed  to  his  Clavis  Pentateuchi,  Edinburgh, 
1770,  refers  to  the  Zohar  to  prove  the  antiquity 
of  the  Hebrew  vowel-points,  because  it  states 
that  "the  vowel-points  proceeded  from  the  Holy 
Spirit  who  indited  the  Sacred  Scriptures,"  etc. 
(on  Song  of  Songs  57b;  ed.  Amsterdam,  1701). 
Of  course  so  long  as  the  Cabala  was  believed  to 
be  a  genuine  revelation  from  God,  and  Simon 
ben  Jochai  (of  the  second  century)'  was  believed 
to  be  the  author  of  the  Zohar,  to  whom  God  com- 
municated all  the  mysteries,  it  was  but  a  matter 
of  course  to  believe  in  the  antiquity  and  divinity 
of  the  vowel-points. 

John  Allen  (died  1839)  in  his  Modern  Juda- 
ism, London,  1816,  (2d.  ed.  1830)  also  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  Cabala,  in  which  he  premises  the 
antiquity  of  the  Zohar,  which  he  makes  the  pri- 
mary source  of  the  primitve  Cabala.  Passing 
over  Dean  Milman's  (died  1868)  History  of  the 
Jews,  London,  1829,  (often  reprinted),  in  which 
we  naturally  also  find  references  to  the  Cabala, 
we  mention  J.  W.  Etheridge  (died  1866),  author 
of  Jerusalem  and  Tiberias;  Sora  and  Cordova,  a 


FOREWORD 

Survey  of  the  Religious  and  Scholastic  Learning 
of  the  Jews,  Designed  as  an  Introduction  to  He- 
brew Literature,  London,  1856.  This  author 
seems  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  re- 
searches of  the  Jewish  scholars  in  Germany,  but 
he  nevertheless  stoutly  adheres  to  the  traditional 
view.    Thus  he  remarks  on  page  314: 

"To  the  authenticity  of  the  Zohar,  as  a  work 
of  the  early  Kabalistic  school,  objections  have  in- 
deed been  made,  but  they  are  not  of  sufficient 
gravity  to  merit  an  extended  investigation.  The 
opinion  that  ascribes  it  as  a  pseudo-fabrication 
to  Moses  de  Leon  in  the  thirteenth  century,  has, 
I  imagine,  but  few  believers  among  the  learned 
in  this  subject  in  our  own  day.  The  references 
to  Shemun  ben  Yocha'i  and  the  Kabala  in  the 
Talmud,  and  abundant  internal  evidence  found 
in  the  book  itself,  exhibit  the  strongest  probabil- 
ity, not  that  Shemun  himself  was  the  author  of 
it,  but  that  it  is  the  fruit  and  result  of  his  per- 
sonal instructions,  and  of  the  studies  of  his  im- 
mediate disciples." 

We  may  say  that  Etheridge's  view  is  mutatis 
mutandis  also  that  of  Ad.  Franck,  author  of 
Systcme  de  la  Kabbale  ou  la  philosophic  reli- 
gieuse  des  Hebreux,  Paris,  1843  (2d.  ed.  1892)  ; 
translated  into  German  by  A.  Gelinek  (Jellinek), 
Die  Kabbala  oder  die  Religions  philosophic  dcr 
Hebrder,  Leipsig,  1844,  with  which  must  be  com- 


THE    CABALA 

pared  D.  H.  Joel,  Die  Religionsphilosophie  des 
Sohar,  ibid.,  1840,  which  is  an  exceedingly  good 
supplement  to  Franck's  work.  But  an  exami- 
nation of  the  works  published  by  Zunz,  Die  got- 
tesdienstlichen  Vortr'dge  dcr  Juden,  Berlin,  1831, 
p.  405 ;  Geiger,  Melo  Chofnayim,  ibid.,  1840,  in- 
troduction, p.  xvii ;  Sachs,  Die  religiose  Pocsie  dcr 
Juden  in  Spanien,  ibid.,  1845,  p.  327,  Jellinek, 
Moses  Ben  Schem  Tob  de  Leon,  Leipsig,  1851, 
could  have  convinced  Etheridge  that  the  Zohar, 
the  text-book  of  the  Cabala,  is  the  "pseudo-fabri- 
cation" of  Moses  de  Leon  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. That  Landauer  (died  1841)  in  his  essays 
on  the  Cabala  published  in  the  Litteraturblatt  des 
Orients,  1845,  p.  178  et  seq.,  1846,  p.  12  et  seq., 
ascribes  the  authorship  of  the  Zohar  to  Abraham 
ben  Samuel  Abulafia  towards  the  end  of  the 
second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  is  the  more 
weighty  and  instructive  because  he  originally 
started  with  opinions  of  an  exactly  opposite 
character  (Steinschneider,  Jezvish  Literature,  p. 
299).  Nevertheless  Etheridge's  book  was  a  good 
work;  it  was  the  praiseworthy  attempt  of  an 
English  Christian  to  acquaint  the  English-speak- 
ing people  with  the  post-Biblical  literature  of  the 
Jews. 

Four  years  after  the  publication  of  the  above 
work,  Canon  Westcott  (died  1901)  published  his 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  Lon- 


FOREWORD 

don,  1860,  in  which  he  incidentally  refers  to  the 
Cabala,  without  adopting  Etheridge's  view  as  to 
the  authorship  of  the  Zohar;  on  the  contrary  he 
says  (p.  159,  Boston,  1867)  :  "The  Sepher  ha- 
Zohar,  or  Book  of  Splendor,  owes  its  existence 
to  R.  Moses  of  Leon  in  the  thirteenth  century,'' 
and  this,  he  says  in  a  note,  "has  been  satisfac- 
torily established  by  Jellinek  in  his  tract,  Moses 
ben  Schemtob  de  Leon  und  sein  Verh'dltniss  zum 
Sohar,  Leipsig,  1851.  The  warm  approval  of 
Jost  is  sufficient  to  remove  any  lingering  doubt 
as  to  the  correctness  of  Jellinek's  conclusion:  A 
Jellinek  and  die  Kabala,  Leipsic,  1852." 

The  publication  of  Jellinek's  Beitrdge  sur  Ge- 
schichte  der  Kabbala,  2  parts,  Leipsic,  1852;  and 
his  Auszvahl  kabbalistischer  Mystik,  part  I,  ibid., 
1853 ;  Stern's  "Versuch  einer  umstandlichen 
Analyse  des  Sohar"  (in  Ben  Chananja,  Monats- 
schrift  fiir  jiidische  Theologie,  Vols.  I-IV,  Sze- 
gedin,  1858-1861);  Jost's  Geschichte  des  Juden- 
thums  und  seiner  Sekten,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  66-81, 
Leipsic,  1859;  more  especially  of  Graetz's  Ge- 
schichte der  Juden,1  Vol.  VII,  pp.  73-87,  442- 
459;  487-507,  Leipsic,  1863,  paved  the  way  for 
Christian  D.  Ginsburg's  (now  very  scarce)  essay 

J  The  English  translation  of  this  work,  published  by 
the  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America,  is  of  no 
service  to  the  student,  because  the  scholarly  notes, 
which  are  the  best  part  of  the  original,  are  entirely 
omitted. 


THE   CABALA 

The  Kabbalah,  London,  1865.  As  a  matter  of 
course  he  adopts  the  results  of  modern  scholar- 
ship and  rejects  the  authorship  of  Simon  ben 
Jochai. 

As  far  as  we  are  aware,  nothing  has  been  pub- 
lished in  English  since  1865.  The  Kabbalah  Un- 
veiled by  S.  L.  M.  Mathers,  London,  1887,  gives 
only  a  translation  of  some  parts  of  the  Zohar, 
which  Knorr  von  Rosenroth  had  rendered  into 
Latin.  Nevertheless  this  work  is  interesting,  be- 
cause an  English  reader — provided  he  has  enough 
patience — can  get  a  taste  of  the  Zoharic  wisdom 
and  unwisdom. 


CHAPTER  I. 
NAME  AND  ORIGIN    OF   THE    CABALA. 

The  Cabala. — By  Cabala  we  understand  that 
system  of  religious  philosophy,  or  more  properly, 
of  Jewish  theosophy,  which  played  so  important 
a  part  in  the  theological  and  exegetical  literature 
of  both  Jews  and  Christians  ever  since  the  Mid- 
dle Ages. 

The  Hebrew  word  Cabala  (from  Kibbel)  prop- 
erly denotes  "reception,"  then  "a  doctrine  re- 
ceived by  oral  tradition."  The  term  is  thus  in 
itself  nearly  equivalent  to  "transmission,"  like 
the  Latin  traditio,  in  Hebrew  masorah,  for  which 
last,  indeed,  the  Talmud  makes  it  interchange- 
able in  the  statement  given  in  Pirke  Abot  I,  1 : 
"Moses  received  {kibbel)  the  Law  on  Mount 
Sinai,  and  transmitted  (umsarah)  it  to  Joshua." 
The  difference,  however,  between  the  word  "Ca- 
bala" and  the  cognate  term  masorah  is  that  the 
former  expressed  "the  act  of  receiving,"  while 
the  latter  denotes  "the  act  of  giving  over,  sur- 
rendering, transmitting."     The  name,  therefore, 


THE   CABALA 

tells  us  no  more  than  that  this  theosophy  has 
been  received  traditionally.  In  the  oldest  Jewish 
literature  (Mishna,  Midrash,  Talmud),  the  Ca- 
bala denotes  the  whole  body  of  Jewish  tradition. 
The  name  is  even  applied  to  the  prophetic  writ- 
ings of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Hagiographa, 
in  contradistinction  to  the  Pentateuch.  As  a 
scientific  system  the  Cabala  is  also  called  chokmat 
ha-cabalah,  i.  e.,  science  of  tradition,  or  chokmah 
nistarah  (abbreviated  ch'n,  i.  e.,  chcn,  }n),  i.  e., 
secret  science  or  wisdom,  and  its  representatives 
and  adherents  delighted  in  calling  themselves 
maskilim,  i.  e.,  "intelligent,"  or  with  a  play  of 
words  yode  ch'n,  i.  e.,  "connoisseurs  of  secret 
wisdom." 

Having  defined  the  term  Cabala,  which  was 
still  commonly  used  for  "oral  tradition"  in  the 
13th  and  14th  centuries  even  after  the  technical 
sense  of  the  word  was  established,  we  must  be 
careful  to  distinguish  between  cabala  and  mys- 
ticism. Like  other  Eastern  nations,  the  Jews 
were  naturally  inclined  to  theosophical  specula- 
tion and  though  this  tendency  may  have  been  re- 
pressed by  the  definite  teaching  of  revelation  as 
long  as  they  were  confined  within  the  sacred 
boundaries  of  Palestine,  it  found  a  freer  scope 
after  the  Exile. 

There  were  two  subjects  about  which  the 
Jewish  imagination  especially  busied  itself, — the 


10 


NAME  AND  ORIGIN 

history  of  the  Creation,  and  the  Merkabah,  or  the 
Divine  apparition  to  Ezekiel.  Both  touch  the 
question  of  God's  original  connection  with  His 
creatures,  and  that  of  His  continued  intercourse 
with  them.  They  treat  of  the  mystery  of  nature 
and  of  Providence,  especially  of  Revelation ;  and 
an  attempt  is  made  to  answer  the  question,  how 
the  Infinite  God  can  have  any  connection  or  in- 
tercourse with  finite  creatures. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  far  it  is  possible  to 
trace  with  certainty  Jewish  mysticism.  Even  in 
the  book  of  Sirach  (Ecclus,  xlix.  8)  it  is  the 
special  praise  of  Ezekiel  that  he  saw  the  chariot 
of  the  Cherubim.  When  we  come  to  the  period 
of  the  Mishna,  we  find  the  existence  of  a  body 
of  esoteric  doctrine  already  presupposed.  It  is 
laid  down  that  "no  one  ought  to  discourse  the 
history  of  Creation  (Gen.  i)  with  two,  or  the 
Chariot  (Ezek.  i)  with  one,  unless  he  be  a 
scholar,  who  has  knowledge  of  his  own"  (Chag- 
igall,  1). 

Further  allusions  to  these  mysterious  doctrines 
occur  in  the  Talmud,  but  any  rash  investigation 
of  them  was  discouraged,  as  is  shown  by  the 
story  of  the  four  sages  in  "the  enclosed  garden," 
i.  e.,  who  were  engaged  in  theosophical  studies. 
One  of  them,  it  was  said,  had  looked  around  and 
died ;  another  had  looked  around  and  lost  his  rea- 
son; a  third  eventually  tried  to  destroy  the  gar- 


11 


THE   CABALA 

den  ;l  while  the  fourth  alone  had  entered  and  re- 
turned in  safety  (Chagiga,  fol.  14,  col.  2). 

Little  by  little  mysticism  made  its  way  from 
Palestine  into  Babylonia  and  found  many  follow- 
ers. Its  adepts  called  themselves  "Men  of 
Faith."  They  boasted  of  possessing  the  means 
of  obtaining  a  view  of  the  divine  household.  By 
virtue  of  certain  incantations,  invocations  of  the 
names  of  God  and  the  angels,  and  the  recitation 
of  certain  prayer-like  chants,  combined  with 
fasting  and  an  ascetic  mode  of  living,  they  pre- 
tended to  be  able  to  perform  supernatural  deeds. 
For  this  purpose  they  made  use  of  amulets  and 
cameos  (Kameoth),  and  wrote  upon  them  the 
names  of  God  and  the  angels  with  certain  signs. 
Miracle-working  was  a  trifle  to  these  mystics. 
The  books  which  they  wrote  only  gave  hints,  and 
only  those  were  initiated  into  the  mystic  secrets, 
in  whose  hand  and  forehead  the  adepts  pretended 
to  discover  lines  that  proved  them  to  be  worthy 
of  being  initiated. 

Origin  of  the  Cabala. — Deferring  until  later 

Mn  the  Talmud  he  is  called  Elisha  ben-Abuja,  sur- 
named  Acher,  i.  e.,  "the  other  one,"  after  his  apostasy 
From  Judaism.  It  is  related  of  him  that  while  attending 
the  Jewish  college  he  had  often  been  noticed  to  carry 
with  him  writings  of  the  "Minim"  (probably  of  Gnos- 
tics), and  that  he  had  even  been  in  the  habit  of  quoting 
Greek  poetry.  Elisha  was  a  pupil  of  the  famous  rabbi 
Akiba;  comp.  Jellinek,  Elisha  ben-Abujja,  genannt 
.  Ichcr,  Leipsic,  1847. 

U 


NAME  AND  ORIGIN 

the  works  belonging  to  this  period,  we  will  now 
speak  of  the  origin  of  the  Cabala.  Although  the 
name  "Cabala"  in  its  pregnant  meaning  is  first 
used  in  the  13th  century,  yet  Jewish  tradition 
claims  a  high  antiquity  for  the  Cabala  and  traces 
it  back,  among  others,  to  three  famous  Talmud- 
ists,  as  the  proper  founders  of  the  Cabala,  viz., 
Rabbi  Ismael  ben  Elisa  (about  121  A.  D.)  ;  Ne- 
chunjah  Ben-Ha-Kanah  (about  70  A.  D.),  and 
especially  Simon  ben  Jochai  (about  150  A.  D.),2 
the  reputed  author  of  the  Zohar. 

Whatever  may  be  the  claims  of  these  tradi- 
tions they  must  be  rejected.  The  mystical  specu- 
lations of  the  Cabala  are  entirely  foreign  to 
older  Judaism,  especially  original  Mosaism.  It 
is  true  that  the  Talmud  contains  many  things 
concerning  God,  heaven,  hell,  world,  magic, 
etc.,3  but  these  things  were  generally  assigned  to 
some  individuals,  and  are  elements  derived  from 
Parsism  and  neo-Platonism ;  and  much  as  the 
Talmud  and  Midrash  may  otherwise  speak  of  the 
three  teachers  mentioned  before,  such  things  are 
not  recorded  of  them.  The  Cabala  as  a  mystical 
system  and  its  development  as  such  undoubtedly 
belongs  to  the  Middle  Ages,  beginning  probably 
with  the  seventh  century  of  our  era,  and  culmin- 

2  See  my  article  s.  v.  in  McClintock  and  Strong's 
Cyclop.,  Vol.  IX,  p.  757. 

3  The  reader  is  referred  for  such  things  to  my  ar- 
ticle "Talmud,"  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  X,  pp.  170.  171. 

13 


THE    CABALA 

ating  in  the  Book  Zohar.  A  fuller  and  more  ma- 
ture development  of  the  Cabala  is  due  to  the  spec- 
ulations of  later  masters. 

The  origin  of  the  Cabala  belongs  to  that  period 
in  which  Judaism  on  the  one  hand  was  permeated 
by  a  crude  anthropomorphic  notion  of  the  Deity, 
whereas  on  the  other  hand  Platonism  and  Aris- 
totelianism  strove  for  the  ascendency  in  formu- 
lating the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Jewish  be- 
lief. With  Moses  Maimonides  (1135-1204)  ra- 
tionalism had  reached  its  climax.  The  injunc- 
tions of  the  Bible  were  only  to  be  explained  by 
the  light  of  reason.  Only  the  simple,  primary 
or  literary  sense  (peshat)  of  the  Scripture  was 
recognized,  the  existing  allegorical  interpretation 
(dcrush)  was  considered  either  as  rabbinical 
fancy,  or  one  saw  in  it  only  a  poetical  form. 
Even  the  Talmud  had  been  systematized  and  co- 
dified. Religion  had  become  a  more  or  less 
meaningless  opus  operatum.  Philosophy  had  al- 
ways been  treated  as  something  secondary,  which 
had  nothing  to  do  with  practical  Judaism,  as  it 
is  daily  and  hourly  practiced.  Maimonides,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  introduced  it  into  the  holiest 
place  in  Judaism,  and,  as  it  were,  gave  Aristotle 
a  place  next  to  the  doctors  of  the  Law.  Instead 
of  unifying  Judaism,  Maimonides  caused  a  divi- 
sion, and  the  Maimunists  and  Anti-Maimunists 
opposed  each  other.     A  reaction  came  and  the 


ll 


NAME  AND  ORIGIN 

Cabala  stepped  in  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  grow- 
ing shallowness  of  the  Maimunists'  philosophy. 
The  storm  against  his  system  broke  out  in  Prov- 
ence and  spread  over  Spain.  The  latter  country 
may  be  considered  as  the  real  home  of  the  Ca- 
bala. When  the  Jews  were  driven  from  that 
country,  the  Cabala  took  root  in  Palestine  and 
thence  it  was  carried  back  into  the  different 
countries  of  Europe. 

The  fundamental  ideas  of  the  Cabala  are  un- 
Jewish,  derived  from  Philo,  the  neo-Platonists 
and  the  neo- Pythagoreans ;  we  sometimes  even 
notice  Gnostic  influences.  But  the  close  amalga- 
mation of  these  different  elements  with  Biblical 
and  Midrashic  ideas  has  given  to  these  foreign 
parts  such  a  Jewish  coloring,  that  at  the  first 
glance  they  appear  as  an  emanation  of  the  Jew- 
ish mental  life. 


IS 


CHAPTER  1L 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CABALA 
IN  THE  PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD. 

Pre-Zohar  Period. — The  history  of  the  Ca- 
bala comprises  a  period  of  nearly  a  thousand 
years,  its  beginning  may  be  traced  back  to  the 
seventh  century,  whereas  its  last  shoots  belong 
to  the  eighteenth  century.  For  convenience^ 
sake  we  can  distinguish  two  periods,  the  one 
reaching  from  the  seventh  to  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, the  other  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  eight- 
eenth century.  The  former  is  the  time  of  grad- 
ual growth,  development  and  progress,  the  other 
that  of  decline  and  decay.  The  origin  of  the  Zo- 
har  in  the  thirteenth  century  forms  the  climax  in 
the  history  of  the  Cabala.  It  became  the  treasury 
to  the  followers  of  this  theosophy,  a  text-book 
for  the  students  of  the  Cabala,  the  standard  and 
code  of  the  cabalistic  system,  the  Bible  of  the 
Cabalists. 

From  the  seventh  to  the  ninth  century  we 
meet  with  the  representatives  of  the  mysteries  of 

16 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

the  mcrkaba,1  which  is  expounded  in  the  so-called 
Hekaloth,  i.  e.,  "Palaces."  This  work,  which  is 
ascribed  to  Ismael  ben-Elisa,  opens  with  a  de- 
scription of  God's  throne  and  his  household  con- 
sisting of  angelic  hosts.  In  this  mystical  pro- 
duction, which  has  been  reprinted  by  Jellinek  in 
Bet  ha-Midrash,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  83-108,  the  praises 
of  the  Almighty  God  and  his  chariot  throne  are 
celebrated.  We  are  told  that  each  of  the  seven 
heavenly  palaces  is  guarded  by  eight  angels;  a 
description  of  the  formula  is  given  by  virtue  of 
which  these  angelic  guards  are  obliged  to  grant 
admission  into  the  celestial  palaces;  also  a  de- 
scription of  the  peculiar  qualifications  necessary 
for  those  who  desire  to  enter  into  these  palaces. 
Some  hymns  of  praise  and  a  conversation  with 
God,  Israel  and  the  angels  conclude  this  treatise, 
which  like  the  Shiar  Koma  or  the  treatise  on  "the 
Dimensions  of  the  Deity,"  also  ascribed  to  Rabbi 
Ismael,  knows  nothing  of  the  speculations  of  the 
En  Soph,  the  ten  Sephiroth  and  the  doctrine  of 
the  Transmigration  of  Souls. 

Another  work  belonging  to  this  period  is  the 

1Mevkaba,  i.  e.,  "Chariot,"  mentioned  in  Ezek.  i  and 
x,  which  treat  of  the  Divine  Throne,  resting  on  wheels, 
and  carried  by  sacred  animals.  Great  mysteries  are  at- 
tached by  the  ancient  Jews  to  all  details  of  this  de- 
scription of  the  Deity  and  his  surroundings,  which  in 
imitation  of  Maascy  Bereshit,  i.  e.,  "the  work  of  the 
hexahemeron"  or  "cosmogony,"  is  also  called  Maascy 
Merkaba,  "the  Work  of  the  Chariot,"  a  kind  of  "the- 
osophv." 

\7 


THE    CABALA 

Othijoth  dc  Rabbi  Akiba,  i.  e.,  "the  Alphabet  of 
Rabbi  Akiba,"  which  alternately  treats  each  let- 
ter of  the  Hebrew  alphabet  "as  representing  an 
idea  as  an  abbreviation  for  a  word,  and  as  the 
symbol  of  some  sentiment,  according  to  its  pe- 
culiar form,  in  order  to  attach  to  those  letters 
moral,  theoanthropic,  angelological  and  mystical 
notions."  This  treatise  is  also  given  in  Jellinek's 
work,  cited  above,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  12-49,  Leipsic, 
1855.  A  Latin  translation  of  Akiba's  Alphabet 
is  given  by  Kircher,  in  his  (Edipus  Mgyptiacus,2 
and  in  Bartolocci's  Bibliotheca  Rabbinical 

Bodenschatz  in  his  Kirchliche  Verfassung  der 
heutigen  Juden,  (Erlangen,  1748)  gives  in  Part 
III,  p.  15,  the  following  specimen:  "On  the 
words:  'The  Lord  is  nigh  unto  them  that  are 
of  a  broken  heart'  (Ps.  xxxiv,  18)  we  read:  'All 
who  are  of  a  broken  heart  are  more  agreeable  be- 
fore God  than  the  ministering  angels,  because  the 
ministering  angels  are  remote  from  the  divine 
Majesty  360,000,000  miles,  as  it  is  said  in  Is.  vi. 
2:  "Above  it  stood  the  Seraphim7'  {mimaal  lo), 
where  the  word  lo  by  way  of  gematria  means 
36,000.  This  teaches  us  that  the  body  of  the 
divine  Majesty  is  2,000,000,336,000  miles  long. 
From  his  loins  upward  are  1,000,000,180,000 
miles,  and  from  his  loins  downward  118  times 
10,000  miles.     But  these  miles  are  not  like  ours, 

2  Rome.  1652,  Vol.  II,  p.  225  f. 
ftVol.  IV,  pp.  27  f. 

18 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

but  like  his  (God's)  miles.  For  his  mile  is 
1,000,000  ells  long,  and  his  ell  contains  four 
spans  and  a  hand's  breadth,  and  his  span  goes 
from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other,  as  is 
said  Is.  x.  12 :  "Who  has  measured  the  waters 
in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  and  meted  out  heaven 
with  the  span?"  Another  explanation  is  that  the 
words  "and  meted  out  heaven  with  the  span" 
denote  that  the  heaven  and  the  heaven  of  all 
heavens  is  only  one  span  long,  wide  and  high, 
and  that  the  earth  with  all  the  abysses  is  as  long 
as  the  sole  of  the  foot,  and  wide  as  the  sole  of 
the  foot,  etc.,  etc'  " 

Another  part  of  Akiba's  Alphabet  is  the  so- 
called  "Book  of  Enoch,"4  which  describes  the 
glorification  of  Enoch  and  his  transformation 
into  the  angel  Metatron,  regarding  him  as  "the 
little  God"  in  contradistinction  to  "the  Great 
God." 

These  mystical  treatises  came  into  existence  in 
the  course  of  time,  and  their  teachings  rapidly 
spread.  So  numerous  became  the  disciples  of 
mysticism  in  the  twelfth  century  that  Maimo- 
nides  found  it  necessary  to  denounce  the  system. 
"Give  no  credence  to  the  nonsense  of  the  writers 
of  charms  and  amulets,  to  what  they  tell  you  or 
to  what  you  find  in  their  foolish  writings  about 
the  divine  names ;  which  they  invent  without  any 

*  Also  reprinted  in  Jellinek's  Bet  Ha-Midrash,  Vol. 
II.  pp.  114-117. 

19 


THE   CABALA 

sense,  calling  them  appellations  of  the  Deity, 
and  affirming  that  they  require  holiness  and  pur- 
ity and  perform  miracles.  All  these  things  are 
fables;  a  sensible  man  will  not  listen  to  them, 
much  less  believe  in  them."5 

A  new  stage  in  the  development  of  the  Cabala 
commences  with  the  publication  of  The  Book  of 
Creation  or  Jezirah,  which  is  the  first  work  that 
comprises  the  philosophical  speculations  of  the 
age  in  one  systematic  whole.  Scholars  are  now 
agreed  that  the  Book  of  Jezirah  belongs  to  the 
eighth  or  ninth  centuries,  and  that  it  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  Jezirah-Book  mentioned  in  the 
Talmud,  where  we  are  told  that  "Rabbis  Hanina 
and  Oshaya  studied  it  every  Friday,  whereby 
they  produced  a  calf  three  years  old  and  ate  it" 
(Sanhedrin,  fol.  65,  col.  2),  and  whereby  Rabbi 
Joshua  ben  Hananya  declared  he  could  take  fruit 
and  instantly  produce  the  trees  which  belong  to 
them  (Jerusalem  Sanhedrin,  chapt.  VII  towards 
the  end).6 

5  More,  Nebuchim  I.  61.  Wiinsche  thinks  that  the 
treatise  De  Judaicis  siipcrstitionibiis  by  Agobard,  bishop 
of  Lyons  (died  840),  was  directed  against  this  mystic 
tendency. 

0  L.  Goldschmidt,  Das  Buck  der  Schopfang,  Frank- 
furt a.  M.,  1894,  p.  10,  remarks:  "I  am  inclined  to  put 
the  time  of  the  composition  of  the  Book  Jezirah  into 
the  second  century  B.  C,  and  assert  that  it  is  the  same 
book  of  the  Creation  which  is  mentioned  in  the  Talmud." 
He  is  also  inclined  to  make  Palestine  the  place  of  its 
composition. 

20 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

The  Sepher  Jezirah  as  we  now  have  it,  is 
properly  a  monologue  on  the  part  of  Abraham, 
in  which,  by  the  contemplation  of  all  that  is 
around  him,  he  ultimately  arrived  at  the  convic- 
tion of  the  Unity  of  God.  Hence  the  remark  of 
the  philosopher  Jehudah  Halevi  (born  about 
1086) — "the  Book  of  the  Creation,  which  belongs 
to  our  father  Abraham demon- 
strates the  existence  of  the  Deity  and  the  Divine 
Unity,  by  things  which  are  on  the  one  hand  man- 
ifold and  multifarious,  whilst  on  the  other  hand 
they  converge  and  harmonize;  and  this  harmony 
can  only  proceed  from  One  who  originated  it" 
(Khozari,  IV,  25). 

Referring  the  reader  to  the  literature  on  the 
Sepher  Jezirah  to  Goldschmidt's  book,  pp.  35-46,7 
we  will  state  that  the  Book  of  Creation  consists 
of  six  Perakim  or  chapters,  subdivided  into 
thirty-three  very  brief  Mishnahs  or  sections,  as 
follows :  the  first  chapter  has  twelve  sections,  the 
second  has  five,  the  third  five,  the  fourth 
four,  the  fifth  three,  and  the  sixth  four  sections. 
The  doctrines  which  the  book  propounds  are  de- 
livered in  the  style  of  aphorisms  or  theorems, 
and,  pretending  to  be  the  dicta  of  Abraham,  are 
laid  down  very  dogmatically,  in  a  manner  be- 
coming the  authority  of  this  patriarch,  who,  ac- 

7  We  may  add  the  English  translation  of  the  book 
by  Edersheim,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus  the  Mes- 
siah, Vol.  II  (1883),  pp.  690-695. 


THE   CABALA 

cording  to  Artapanus  instructed  King  Phare- 
thothes  of  Egypt  in  astrology  (Eusebius,  Pracp. 
evang.,  IX,  18)  ;  fulfilled  the  whole  law,  before 
it  was  given  (Apoc.  Baruch,  chap.  57;  Kiddu- 
shin,  IV,  14  fin.),  and  victoriously  overcame  ten 
temptations8  (Pirke  Aboth,  V,  3). 

Theosophical  Arithmetic. — The  book  opens 
with  the  statement  that  "by  thirty-two  paths  of 
secret  wisdom,  the  Eternal,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the 
God  of  Israel  the  living  God,  the  King  of  the  Uni- 
verse, the  Merciful  and  Gracious,  the  High  and 
Exalted  God,  He  who  inhabits  eternity,  Glorious 
and  Holy  is  His  name,  hath  created  the  world  by 
means  of  number,  word  and  writing  (or  number, 
numberer,  numbered)"  I.  1. — The  book  shows 
why  there  are  just  thirty-two  of  these.  By  an 
analysis  of  this  number  it  seeks  to  exhibit,  in  a 
peculiar  method  of  theosophical  arithmetic,  on 
the  assumption  that  they  are  the  signs  of  exist- 
ence and  thought,  the  doctrine  that  God  produced 
all,  and  is  over  all,  the  universe  being  a  develop- 
ment of  original  entity,  and  existence  being  but 
thought  become  concrete;  "in  short,  that  instead 
of  the  heathenish  or  popular  Jewish  conception 
of  the  world  as  outward,  or  co-existent  with  De- 

8  Comp.  in  general  Beer,  Leben  Abraham's  nach 
Auffassung  der  judlschen  Sage,  Leipsic,  1859;  Grun- 
baum,  N  cue  Beitrage  zur  semitischen  Sagcnkunde ; 
1S93,  pp.  89-132;  Bonwetsch,  Die  Apokalypse  Abrahams, 
1897,  pp.  41-55. 

22 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

ity,  it  is  co-equal  in  birth,  having  been  brought 
out  of  nothing  by  God,  thus  establishing  a  Pan- 
theistic system  of  emanation,  of  which,  princi- 
pally because  it  is  not  anywhere  designated  by 
name,  one  would  think  the  writer  was  not  himself 
quite  conscious." 

The  following  will  illustrate  the  curious  proof 
of  this  argumentation :  the  number  32  is  the  sum 
of  10,  the  number  of  the  ten  fingers  (I,  3),  and 
22,  the  number  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet,  this  lat- 
ter being  afterwards  further  resolved  into 
3+7+12  (1,2).  The  first  chapter  (I,  2-8  treats 
of  the  decade  and  its  elements,  which  are  called 
figures  in  contradistinction  from  the  22  letters. 
This  decade  is  the  sign-manual  of  the  universe. 
In  the  details  of  this  hypothesis  the  existence  of 
divinity  in  the  abstract  is  really  ignored,  though 
not  formally  denied.  Thus  the  number  one  is 
its  spirit  as  an  active  principle,  in  which  all 
worlds  and  beings  are  yet  enclosed.  "One  is  the 
spirit  of  the  living  God,  blessed  and  again  blessed 
be  the  Name  of  Him,  Who  liveth  for  ever — 
Voice  and  Spirit  and  Word,  and  this  is  the  Holy 
Ghost"  (1,9). 

Two  is  the  spirit  from  this  spirit,  i.  e.,  the  ac- 
tive principle  in  so  far  as  it  has  beforehand  de- 
cided on  creating;  "in  it  He  engraved  the  twenty- 
two  letters"  (I,  10). 

Three  is  water;  four  is  fire;  "in  it  He  hewed 


23 


THE   CABALA 

the  throne  of  glory,  the  Ophanim9  and  Seraphim, 
the  sacred  living  creatures,  and  the  angels  of 
service,  and  of  these  three  He  founded  His 
dwelling  place,  as  it  is  said,  He  maketh  His  an- 
gels breaths,  and  His  ministers  a  flaming  fire  (I, 
11,  12).  The  six  remaining  figures,  5-10,  are  re- 
garded severally  as  the  sign-manual  of  height, 
depth,  east,  west,  north  and  south,  forming  the 
six  sides  of  a  cube,  and  representing  the  idea  of 
form  in  its  geometrical  perfection  (I,  13). 

In  the  words  of  the  Book  of  Creation  the  hex- 
ade  is  thus  described :  ''Five :  Three  letters 
from  out  the  simple  ones ;  He  sealed  spirit  on  the 
three,  and  fastened  them  in  His  great  Name  J 
H  V.10  And  He  sealed  with  them  six  outgoings 
(ends,  terminations)  ;  He  turned  upwards,  and 
He  sealed  it  with  J  H  V.  Six :  He  sealed  below, 
turned  downwards,  and  sealed  it  with  J  V  H. 
Seven :  He  sealed  eastward,  He  turned  in  front 
of  Him,  and  sealed  it  with  H  J  V.  Eight:  He 
sealed  westward  and  turned  behind,  and  sealed 
it  with  H  V  J.  Nine :  He  sealed  southward,  and 
turned  to  His  right,  and  sealed  it  with  V  J  H. 
Ten:  He  sealed  northward,  and  turned  to  His 
left,  and  sealed  it  with  V  H  J.  These  are  the 
Sephiroth:  (1)  Spirit  of  the  living  God,  and  (2) 

9  Ophanim  (D^aitf,  plural  of  1D1K),  translated 
"wheels"  in  the  English  version  (Ezek.  i.  20),  is  taken 
by  the  Jewish  Rabbis  to  denote  "a  distinct  order  of 
angels,"   just  as   Cherubim   and   Seraphim.     Hence   the 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

wind  [air  or  spirit?]11  (3)  water,  and  (4)  fire; 
and  (5)  height  above  and  (6)  below,  (7)  east 
and  (8)  west,  (9)  north  and  (10)  south." 

[Scphiroth  is  the  plural  of  the  word  Sephirah. 
Azariel  derives  the  word  from  saphar,  "to  num- 
ber" ;  later  Cabalists  derive  it  either  from  saphir, 
"Saphir,"  or  from  the  Greek  "spheres,"12  and  are 
not  at  all  certain  whether  to  regard  the  Sephiroth 
as  "principles,"13  or  as  "substances,"14  or  as  "po- 
tencies, powers,"15  or  as  "intelligent  worlds,"16  or 
as  "attributes,"  or  as  "entities,"17  or  as  "organs  of 
the  Deity"  (Kelim).  We  might  fairly  well  trans- 
late the  word  Sephiroth  by  "emanations."] 

We  see,  however,  that  this  alone  establishes 

Talmudic  explanation  of  Exod.  xx,  20,  by  "Thou  shalt 
not  make  the  likeness  of  those  ministering  servants  who 
serve  before  me  in  heaven,  viz..  Ophanim,  Seraphim, 
sacred  Chajoth  and  missive  angels,"  (Rosh  ha-Shana, 
fol.  24,  clo.  2).  Ophan,  the  prince  of  this  order,  is 
regarded  by  the  ancient  sages  as  identical  with  the  angel 
Sandalphon,  flD^JD  =  <rwa8e\<po$,  co-brother  or  fellow- 
companion  of  the  angel  Metabron. 

10  These  three  letters  mean  Jahu,  or  Yahveh,  now 
pronounced  Jehovah,  of  which  they  are  the  abbreviation ; 
what  follows  shows  how  the  permutation  of  these  three 
letters  marks  the  varied  relationship  of  God  to  creation 
in  time  and  space,  and  at  the  same  time,  so  to  speak,  the 
immanence  of  His  manifestation  in  it. 

The  word  ruach  means  all  these. 
12  <70cupcu. 

dpxal. 

vTrocTTaaeis. 
5  8vvd/x€is% 

KOa/XOL    V07]TlK0l% 

Azamoth. 


THE    CABALA 

nothing  real,  but  merely  expounds  the  idea  of 
possibility  or  actuality,  at  the  same  time  estab- 
lishing that  which  is  virtualiter  as  really  existing 
in  God,  the  foundation  of  all  things,  from  which 
the  whole  universe  proceeded.  The  actual  enti- 
ties are  therefore  introduced  in  the  subsequent 
chapters  under  the  twenty-two  letters.  The 
connection  between  the  two  series  is  evidently 
the  Word,  which  in  the  first  Sephira  (number) 
is  yet  identical  in  voice  and  action  with  the 
spirit  (I,  9)  ;  but  afterwards  these  elements, 
separating  as  creator  and  substance,  together 
produce  the  world,  the  materials  of  which  are 
represented  by  the  letters,  severally  divided  into 
gutturals,  labials,  palatals,  linguals  and  dentals 
(II,  3),  since  these  by  their  manifold  manifesta- 
tions, name  and  describe  all  that  exists. 

These  twenty-two  letters  of  the  alphabet  are 
then  divided  into  three  groups,  consisting  re- 
spectively of : 

1.  The  three  mothers  or  fundamental  letters 
(ch.  Ill)  ; 

2.  Seven  double  (ch.  IV),  and 

3.  Twelve  simple  consonants  (ch.  V). 

First  are  subtracted  from  the  twenty-two  let- 
ters the  three  mothers  (Aleph,  Mem,  Shin),  i. 
e.,  the  universal  relations  of  (1)  principle,  (2) 
contrary  principle,  and  (3)  balance  (i.  e.,  the  in- 
termediate). 
In  the  world,   we   have   air,   water,   fire.     This 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

means,  the  heavens  are  from  tire, 
the  earth  from  water,  and  the  air 
indicates  the  intermediate  be- 
tween the  lire  and  the  water. 
In  the  year.  .  there  is  fire,  and  water,  and  wind. 
The  heat  comes  from  fire,  cold 
from  water,  and  moderation  from 
wind  (air)  that  is  intermediate 
between  them. 

In  man there  is  fire,  water  and  wind.  The 

head  is  from  fire,  the  belly  from 
water,  and  the  body  from  wind 
that      is      intermediate    between 
them. 
The  three  mothers  or  fundamental  letters  are 
followed  by  the  seven    duplicate    letters — Beth, 
Gimel,  Daleth,  Caph,  Pe,    Resh,    Tau18 — dupli- 
cate, because  they  are  opposite  as  life  and  death ; 
peace  and  evil;  wisdom  and    folly;    riches    and 
poverty ;  grace  and  ugliness ;  fertility  and  desola- 
tion; rule  and  servitude  (IV,  1):    These  seven 
duplicate  letters  correspond  to  the  seven  outgo- 
ings: above  and  below,  east  and  west,  north  and 
south,  and  the  holy  Temple  in  the  middle,  and  it 
upbears  the  whole    (IV,  2).     From  them   God 
created: 

"These  letters  of  the  Hebrew  Alphabet  are  called 
double  because  they  have  a  double  pronunciation,  being 
sometimes  aspirated  and  sometimes  not,  according  to 
their  being  with  or  without  the  dagcsh  (i.  e.,  a  point  in 
the  middle). 

27 


THE   CABALA 

In  the  world.   Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Sun,  Ve- 
nus, Mercury,  Moon. 

In  man Wisdom,  Riches,  Dominion,  Life, 

Favor,  Progeny,  Peace. 
In  the  year.  .   Sabbath,       Thursday,      Tuesday, 
Sunday,      Friday,      Wednesday, 
Monday. 
With  these  seven  letters  God  also  formed  the 
seven  heavens,  the  seven  earths  or  countries,  and 
the  seven  weeks  from  the  feast  of  Passover  to 
Pentecost  (IV,  3,  4).     These  letters  also  repre- 
sent the  seven  gates  of  issue  in  the  soul ;  two 
eyes,  two  ears,  and  a  mouth,  and  the  two  nostrils. 
Turning  finally  to  the  twelve  single  letters  (ch. 
V),  they  show  the  relations  of  things  so  far  as 
they  can  be  apprehended  in  a  universal  category. 
By  means  of  these  twelve  letters  God  created  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  viz. : 
In  the  world.   Aries,  Taurus,    Gemini,    Cancer, 
Leo,  Virgo,  Libra,  Scorpio,  Sagit- 
tarius,    Capricornus,     Aquarius, 
Pisces. 
3n  the  year.,   the   twelve   months,   viz.:   Nisan, 
Ijar,    Sivan,    Tamus,    Ab,    Elul, 
Tishri,    Cheshvan    or    Marchesh- 
van,  Kislev,  Tebet,  Shebat,  Adar. 

In  man   the    organs    of     sight,    hearing, 

smelling,   talking,   taste,   copulat- 
ing,   dealing,    walking,    thinking, 


:■ 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 
anger,  laughter,  sleeping  (oh.  V, 

They  are  so  organized  by  God  as  to  form  at 
once  a  province,  and  yet  be  ready  for  battle,  i. 
e.,  they  are  as  well  fitted  for  harmonious  as  for 
dissentious  action.  "God  has  placed  in  all  things 
one  to  oppose  the  other;  good  to  oppose  evil, 
good  to  proceed  from  good,  and  evil  from  evil; 
good  to  purify  evil,  and  evil  to  purify  good ;  the 
good  is  in  store  for  the  good,  and  the  evil  is  re- 
served for  the  evil"  (VI,  2).  "The  twelve  are  ar- 
ranged against  each  other  in  battle  array;  three 
serve  love,  three  hatred ;  three  engender  life,  and 
three  death.  The  three  loving  ones  are  the  heart, 
the  ears  and  the  mouth;  the  three  hating  ones: 
the  liver,  the  gall,  and  the  tongue;  but  God  the 
faithful  King,  rules  over  all  three  systems.  One 
(i.  e.,  God)  is  over  the  three;  the  three  are  over 
the  seven ;  the  seven  are  over  the  twelve,  and  all 
are  joined  together,  the  one  with  the  other"  (VI, 
3).' 

We  also  learn  that  the  twenty-two  letters, 
though  a  small  number,  by  their  power  of  "com- 
bination" and  "transposition,"  yield  an  endless 
number  of  words  and  figures,  and  thus  become 
the  types  of  all  the  varied  phenomena  in  the  cre- 
ation. "Just  as  the  twenty-two  letters  yield  two 
hundred  and  thirty-one  types  by  combining 
Aleph  (i.  e.,  the  first  letter)  with  all  the  letters, 


29 


THE    CABALA 

and  all  the  letters  with  Beth  (i  e.,  the  second  let- 
ter), so  all  the  formations  and  all  that  is  spoken 
proceed  from  one  name"  (ch.  II,  4).  To  illus- 
trate how  these  different  types  are  obtained  we 
will  state  that  by  counting  the  first  letter  with 
the  second,  the  first  letter  with  the  third  and  so 
on  with  all  the  rest  of  the  alphabet,  we  obtain  21 
types;  by  combining  the  second  letter  with  the 
third,  fourth,  etc.,  we  get  20  types ;  the  third  let- 
ter combined  with  the  fourth,  etc.,  yields  19 
types;  finally  the  twenty-first  combined  with  the 
last  letter  yields  1  type.  In  this  way  we  get  as 
the  Hebrew  table  shows:  21+20+19+18+17 
+  16  +  15  +  14  +  13+  12  +  11  +  10+9+8+7 
+  6  +  5  +  4  +  3  +  2  +  1=231;  or 

ab  ag  ad  ah  av  az  ach  at  ai  ak  al  am  an  as  etc. 
bg  bd  bh  bv  bz  bch  bt  bi  bk  bl  bm  bn  bs  etc. 
gd  gh  gv  gz  gch  gt  gi  gk  gl  gm  gn  gs  etc. 
dh  dv  dz  dch  dt  di  dk  dl  dm  dn  ds  etc. 
hv  hz  hch  ht  hi  hk  hi  hm  hn  hs  etc. 

The  infinite  variety  in  creation  is  still  more 
strikingly  exhibited  by  permutations,  of  which 
the  Hebrew  alphabet  is  capable,  and  through 
which  an  infinite  variety  of  types  is  obtained. 
Hence  the  remark:  ''Two  letters  form  two 
houses,  three  letters  build  six  houses,  four  build 
twenty-four,  five  build  a  hundred  and  twenty 
houses,  six  build    seven    hundred    and    twenty 

30 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

houses;19  and  from  thenceforward  go  out  and 
think  what  the  mouth  cannot  utter  and  the  ear 
cannot  hear"  (IV,  4).  A  few  examples  may 
serve  as  illustration.  Two  letters  form  two 
houses,  by  using  the  first  two  letters  of  the  He- 
brew alphabet,  a  b,zo  in  the  following  manner: 

1  =  ab 

2  =  ba 

Three  letters,  a,  b,  g,21  build  six  houses,  namely: 

1  =  abg;    2  =  agb;    3  =  bag;    4  =  bga; 
5  — gab;    6  =  gba. 

Four  letters,  a,  b,  g,  d,"  build  twenty- four  houses, 
viz.: 

1  =  abgd  13  =  gabd 

2  —  abdg  14  =  gad  b 

3  =  agbd  15  =  gbad 

4  =  agdb  16  ±=*gbda 

5  =  adbg  17  =  gdab 

6  =  adgb  18  =  gdba 

7  =  bagd  19  =  dabg 

8  =  badg  20  =  dagb 

9  =  bga  d  2 1  =  d  b  ag 

19  In  order  to  ascertain  how  often  a  certain  number 
of  letters  can  be  transposed,  the  product  of  the  pre- 
ceding number  must  be  multiplied  with  it.  thus  : 

Letter  2X1=2  5  X  24  =  120 
3X2=6  6  X  120  =  720 
4  X  6  =  24        7  X  720  =  5040  and  so  on. 

20  X  3 
»  K  3  3 
■  «  3  ^  1 

31 


THE   CABALA 

10  =  bgd  a  22  =  dbga 

11  =  bdag  23  =  dgab 

12  =  bdga  24  =  dgba 

The  Book  of  Creation  closes  with  the  state- 
ment :  "And  when  Abraham  our  father  had  be- 
held, and  considered,  and  seen,  and  drawn,  and 
hewn,  and  obtained  it,  then  the  Lord  of  all  re- 
vealed Himself  to  him,  and  called  him  His 
friend,  and  made  a  covenant  with  him  and  with 
his  seed;  and  he  believed  in  Jehovah,  and  it  was 
computed  to  him  for  righteousness.  He  made 
with  him  a  covenant  between  the  ten  toes,  and 
that  is  circumcision;  between  the  ten  fingers  of 
his  hand,  and  that  is  the  tongue;  and  He  bound 
two-and-twenty  letters  on  his  tongue,  and 
showed  him  their  foundation.  He  drew  them 
with  water,  He  kindled  them  with  fire,  He 
breathed  them  with  wind  (air)  ;  He  burnt  them 
in  seven ;  He  poured  them  forth  in  the  twelve 
constellations''   (ch.  VI,  4). 

Romantic  Cosmology. — The  examination  of 
the  contents  of  the  Book  of  Jezirah  proves  that 
it  has  as  yet  nothing  in  common  with  the  cardinal 
doctrines  of  the  Cabala,  as  exhibited  in  later 
works,  especially  in  the  Zohar,  where  specula- 
tions about  the  being  and  nature  of  the  Deity, 
the  En  Soph23  and  the  Sephiroth,  which  are  the 
essence  of  the  Cabala,  are  given. 

32 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

To  the  period  of  the  Book  of  Jezirah  belongs 
the  remarkable  work  which  in  the  Amsterdam 
edition  of  1601  is  entitled :  "This  is  the  book  of 
the  first  man,  which  was  given  to  him  by  the 
angel  Raziel."  In  this  work  the  angel  Raziel  ap- 
pears as  the  bearer  and  mediator  of  astrological 
and  astronomical  secrets,  and  shows  the  influ- 
ence of  the  planets  upon  the  sublunary  world.  To 
the  same  period  belongs  the  Midrash  Konen,  a 
kind  of  romantic  cosmology  (newly  translated 
into  German  by  Wunsche  in  Israels  Lehrhallen, 
III,  Leipsic,  1909,  pp.  170-201). 

With  the  thirteenth  century  begins  the  crystal- 
lization of  the  Cabala,  and  Isaac  the  Blind  ( flour- 
ished 1190-1210)  may  be  regarded  as  the  orig- 
inator of  this  lore.  The  doctrines  of  the  Seph- 
iroth24  taught  in  the  Book  Jezirah  are  further  de- 
veloped by  his  pupils,  especially  by  Rabbi  Aza- 
riel  (died  1238),  in  his  "Commentary  on  the 
Ten  Sephiroth,  by  Way  of  Questions  and  An- 
swers," an  analysis  of  which  is  given  in  Jelli- 
nek's  Beitragc  cur  Gcschichte  dcr  Kabbalah, 
Leipsic,  1852,  Part  II,  p.  32  f.    In  this  comment- 

23  En  Soph,  PflD  PK  =  "Tre^os,  i.  e.,  "Endless." 
"Boundless,"  is  the  name  of  the  Deity  given  in  the 
Zohar,  where  it  is  said  of  God  (III,  283b)  that  he  can- 
not be  comprehended  by  the  intellect,  nor  described  in 
words,  for  there  is  nothing  which  can  grasp  and  depict 
him  to  us,  and  as  such  he  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  not 
existent  (ftf). 
24  See  above. 

33 


THE   CABALA 

ary  Azariel  lays  down  the    following    proposi- 
tions : 

1.  The  primary  cause  and  governor  of  the 
world  is  the  En  Soph  (i.  e.,  a  being  infinite, 
boundless),  who  is  both  immanent  and  trans- 
cendent. 

2.  From  the  En  Soph  emanated  the  Sephiroth 
which  are  the  medium  between  the  absolute  En 
Soph  and  the  real  world. 

3.  There  are  ten  intermediate  Sephiroth. 

4.  They  are  emanations  and  not  creations. 

5.  They  are  both  active  and  passive. 

6.  The  first  Sephirah  is  called  "Inscrutable 
Height"  (rum  maalah)  :  the  second,  "Wisdom" 
(chokma)  ;  the  third,  "Intelligence"  (binah)  ; 
the  fourth,  "Love"  (chesed)  ;  the  fifth,  "Justice" 
(pa-chad)  ;  the  sixth,  "Beauty"  (tipheret)  ;  the 
seventh,  "Firmness"  (nezach)  ;  the  eighth, 
"Splendor"  (hod)  ;  the  ninth,  "the  Righteous  in 
the  Foundation  of  the  World"  (zadik  ye  sod 
olam)  ;  and  the  tenth,  "Righteousness"  (zedaka). 

The  first  three  Sephiroth  form  the  world  of 
thought ;  the  second  three  the  world  of  the  soul  ; 
and  the  four  last  the  world  of  body — thus  cor- 
responding to  the  intellectual,  moral  and  natural 
worlds. 

That  Isaac  the  Blind  must  be  regarded  as  "the 
Father  of  the  Cabala,"  is  acknowledged  by  some 
of  the  earliest    and    most    intelligent    Cabalists 


34 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

themselves.  And  the  author  of  the  cabalistic 
work  entitled  Maarechcth  haelohuth,  said  to  be 
a  certain  Perez  of  the  second  part  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  frankly  declares  that  "the  doctrine 
of  the  En  Soph  and  the  Ten  Sephiroth  is  neither 
to  be  found  in  the  Law,  Prophets,  or  Hagio- 
grapha,  nor  in  the  writings  of  the  Rabbins  of 
blessed  memory,  but  rests  solely  upon  signs 
which  are  scarcely  perceptible." 

Another  remarkable  book  of  this  period  is  the 
Sepher  Bahir,  or  Midrash  of  Nehunjah  ben-ha- 
Kanah.  According  to  this  work,  long  before  the 
creation  God  caused  a  metaphysical  matter  to 
proceed,  which  became  a  fulness  (mclo)  of  bless- 
ing and  salvation  for  all  forms  of  existence.  The 
ten  divine  emanations,  which  are  not  yet  called 
Sephiroth,  but  Maamarim  and  appear  as  catego- 
ries endowed  with  creative  power,  are  connected 
with  the  attributes  (middoth)  of  God  as  well  as 
with  his  fingers  and  other  members. 

The  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  is  already 
given  here  in  its  most  important  features.  The 
work  itself,  though  ascribed  to  Nehunjah  is  of 
much  later  date,  because  it  speaks  of  the  Hebrew 
vowels  and  accents.  Only  a  part  of  the  Bahir 
book  has  been  published,  first  at  Amsterdam, 
1651 ;  then  again  at  Berlin,  1706.  The  greater 
part  is  still  in  manuscript  in  the  libraries  at  Paris 
and  Leyden. 


35 


THE    CABALA 

The  conversion  of  the  famous  Talmudist  and 
scholar  Moses  Nachmanides25  (1194-1270)  to  the 
newly-born  Cabala  gave  to  it  an  extraordinary 
importance  and  rapid  spread  amongst  his  numer- 
ous followers.  In  the  division  of  the  synagogues 
caused  by  the  writings  of  Maimonides,  Nachman- 
ides took  the  part  of  the  latter,  probably  more  on 
account  of  the  esteem  he  felt  for  this  great  man 
than  for  any  sympathy  with  his  opinions.  Maim- 
onides intended  to  give  Judaism  a  character  of 
unity,  but  he  produced  the  contrary.  His  aim 
was  to  harmonize  philosophy  and  religion,  but 
the  result  was  a  schism  in  the  synagogue,  which 
gave  birth  to  this  queer  kind  of  philosophy  called 
Cabala,  and  to  this  newly-born  Cabala  Nach- 
manides became  converted,  though  he  was  at  first 
decidedly  adverse  to  this  system. 

One  day  the  Cabalist  who  was  most  zealous  to 
convert  him  was  caught  in  a  house  of  ill-fame, 
and  condemned  to  death.  He  requested  Nach- 
manides to  visit  him  on  the  Sabbath,  the  day 
fixed  for  his  execution.  Nachmanides  reproved 
him  for  his  sins,  but  the  Cabalist  declared  his  in- 
nocence, and  that  he  would  partake  with  him  of 
the  Sabbath  meal.  According  to  the  story,  he  did 
as  he  promised,  as  by  means  of  the  Cabalistic 
mysteries  he  effected  his  escape,  and  an  ass  was 

25  See  my  article  s.  v.  "Nachmanides"  in  McClintock 
and  Strong's  Cyclop. 

36 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

executed  in  his  stead,  and  he  himself  was  sud- 
denly transported  into  Nachmanides's  house! 
From  that  time  Nachmanides  became  a  disciple 
of  the  Cabala,  and  was  initiated  into  its  mys- 
teries, the  tenets  of  which  pervade  his  numerous 
writings,  especially  his  commentary  on  the  Pen- 
tateuch. 

To  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century  belongs 
fhe  Masse cheth  Asiluth  or  "the  Treatise  on  the 
Emanations,"  supposed  to  have  been  written  by 
Rabbi  Isaac  Nasir.  From  the  analysis  given  by 
Jellinek  (Auszvahl  kabbalistischcr  Mystik,  Part 
I,  Leipsic,  1853)  we  learn  that  the  prophet  Eli- 
jah propounded  that 

1.  "God  at  first  created  light  and  darkness,  the 
one  for  the  pious  and  the  other  for  the  wicked, 
darkness  having  come  to  pass  by  the  divine  lim- 
itation of  light. 

2.  "God  produced  and  destroyed  sundry 
worlds,  which,  like  ten  trees  planted  upon  a  nar- 
row space,  contend  about  the  sap  of  the  soil,  and 
finally  perish  altogether. 

3.  "God  manifested  himself  in  four  worlds, 
viz.,  Azila,  Beriah,  Jezirah  and  Asian,  corres- 
ponding to  the  four  letters  of  his  name  J  H  V  H. 
In  the  Azilatic  luminous  world  is  the  divine  Ma- 
jesty, the  Shechinah.  In  the  Beriatic  world  are 
the  souls  of  the  pious,  all  the  blessings,  the  throne 
of  God,  who  sits  on  it  in  the  form  of  Achteriel 


37 


THE   CABALA 

(the  crown  of  God,  the  first  Sephira  Kcter),  and 
the  seven  different  luminous  and  splendid  regions. 
In  the  Jeziratic  world  are  the  sacred  animals  in 
the  vision  of  Ezekiel,  the  ten  classes  of  angels 
with  their  princes,  who  are  presided  over  by-  the 
fiery  Metatron,26  the  spirits  of  men,  and  the  ac- 
cessory work  of  the  divine  chariot.  In  the  Asi- 
latic  world  are  the  Ophanim,  the  angels  who  re- 
ceive the  prayers,  who  are  appointed  over  the 
will  of  man,  who  control  the  action  of  mortals, 
who  carry  on  the  struggle  against  evil,  and  who 
are  presided  over  by  the  angelic  prince  Syna- 
delphon.27 

4.  "The  world  was  founded  in  wisdom  and  un- 
derstanding (Prov.  iii.  13),  and  God  in  his 
knowledge  originated  fifty  gates  of  understand- 
ing. 

5.  "God  created  the  world — as  the  book  Jez- 
irah  already  teaches — by  means  of  the  ten  Seph- 
iroth,  which  are  both  the  agencies  and  qualities 

26  The  angel  who  stands  behind  the  throne  of  God. 

27  This  Synadelphon  is  no  doubt  the  same  as  "San- 
dalphon," the  theme  of  Longfellow's  poem  of  that  name, 
which  commences  thus  : 

"Have  you  read  in  the  Talmud  of  old, 
In  the  Legends  the  Rabbins  have  told 
Of  the  limitless  realms  of  the  air, 
Have  you  read  it, — the  marvelous  story 
Of  Sandalphon,  the  Angel  of  Glory, 
Sandalphon,  the  Angel  of  Prayer?" 
In  a  note  on  page  668   (Boston  and  New  York  edi- 
tion, 1893)   it  is  stated  that  Longfellow  marked  certain 
passages  in  Stehelin's  The  Traditions  of  the  Jews,  which 
evidently  furnished  the  material. 

38 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

of  the  Deity.  The  ten  Sephiroth  are  called 
Crown,  Wisdom,  Intelligence,  Mercy,  Fear, 
Beauty,  Victory,  Majesty  and  Kingdom;  they 
are  merely  ideal  and  stand  above  the  concrete 
world"  (pp.2,  3). 

The  conversion  of  Todros  ben  Joseph  Halevi 
Abulafia  (1234-1304)  to  the  Cabala,  gave  to  this 
science  a  great  influence,  on  account  of  Abula- 
fia's  distinguished  position  as  physician  and 
financier  in  the  court  of  Sancho  IV,  King  of 
Castile.  The  influence  of  Abulafia,  whose  works 
are  still  in  manuscript,  can  be  best  seen  from  the 
fact  that  four  Cabalists  of  the  first  rank  ranged 
themselves  under  his  banner  and  dedicated  their 
compositions  to  him.  These  four  Cabalists  were 
Isaac  Ibn  Latif  or  Allatif,  Abraham  Abulafia, 
Joseph  Gikatilla,  and  Moses  de  Leon,  all  Span- 
iards. 

Mysteries  of  the  Cabala. — Isaac  Ibn  Latif 
(about  1220-1290),  starting  with  the  thought 
that  a  philosophical  view  of  Judaism  was 
not  the  "right  road  to  the  sanctuary,"  en- 
deavored to  combine  philosophy  with  Ca- 
bala. "He  laid  more  stress  than  his  predeces- 
sors on  the  close  connection  between  the  spirit- 
ual and  the  material  world — between  God  and 
his  creation.  For  the  Godhead  is  in  all,  and  all 
is  in  it.     In  soul-inspiring    prayers    the    human 


39 


THE    CABALA 

spirit  is  raised  to  the  world-spirit  (sechel  ha- 
poel),  to  which  it  is  united  'in  a  kiss,'  and,  so 
influencing  the  Deity,  it  draws  down  blessings  on 
the  sublunar  world.  But  not  every  mortal  is  cap- 
able of  such  spiritual  and  efficacious  prayer; 
therefore  the  prophets,  the  most  perfect  men, 
were  obliged  to  pray  for  the  people,  for  they 
alone  knew  the  power  of  prayer.  The  unfold- 
ing and  revelation  of  the  Deity  in  the  world  of 
spirits,  spheres  and  bodies  Allatif  explained  by 
mathematical  forms.  The  mutual  relation  there- 
of is  the  same  as  "that  of  the  point  extending  and 
thickening  into  a  line,  the  line  into  the  plane,  the 
plane  into  the  expanded  body." 

An  enthusiastic  contemporary  of  Allatif  was 
Abraham  ben  Samuel  Abulafia28  (born  at  Sara- 
gossa,  1240;  died  1291).  He  was  an  eccentric 
personage,  full  of  whims,  and  fond  of  adventures. 
Not  satisfied  with  philosophy,  he  gave  himself  to 
the  mysteries  of  the  Cabala  in  their  most  fantastic 
extremes,  as  the  ordinary  doctrine  of  the  Seph- 
iroth  did  not  satisfy  him.  He  sought  after  some- 
thing higher,  for  prophetic  inspiration.  Through 
it  he  discovered  a  higher  Cabala,  which  offered 
the  means  of  coming  into  spiritual  communion 
with  the  Godhead,  and  of  obtaining  prophetic  in- 
sight.     To  analyze  the  words    of    Holy    Writ, 

28  See  my  article  s.  v.  "Abulafia"  (he.  cit.,  Vol.  XI, 
p.  18)  ;  comp.  also  Giinzburg,  Dcr  Pseudo-Messias  Abra- 
ham Abulafia,  sein  Lcben  und  sein  Wirken.  Cracow, 
1904. 

10 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

especially  those  of  the  divine  name,  to  use  the 
letters  as  independent  notions  (Notaricon),  or 
to  transpose  the  component  parts  of  a  word  in 
all  possible  permutations,  so  as  to  form  words 
from  them  ( Tsiruf) ,  or  finally  to  employ  the  let- 
ters as  numbers  (Gematria),  are  indeed  means  of 
securing  communion  with  the  spirit-world;  but 
this  alone  is  not  sufficient.  To  be  worthy  of  a 
prophetic  revelation,  one  must  lead  an  ascetic 
life,  retire  into  a  quiet  closet,  banish  all  earthly 
cares,  clothe  himself  in  white  garments,  wrap 
himself  up  with  Talith  (i.  e.,  the  fringed  gar- 
ment) and  Phylacteries,  and  devoutly  prepare  his 
soul,  as  if  for  an  interview  with  the  Deity.  He 
must  pronounce  the  letters  of  God's  name  at  in- 
tervals, with  modulations  of  the  voice,  or  write 
them  down  in  a  certain  order  under  divers  ener- 
getic movements,  turnings  and  bendings  of  the 
body,  till  the  mind  becomes  dazed  and  the  heart 
is  filled  with  a  glow.  When  one  has  gone 
through  these  practices  and  is  in  such  a  condi- 
tion, the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  is  shed  abroad 
in  the  human  soul:  the  soul  then  unites  itself 
with  the  divine  soul  in  a  kiss,  and  prophetic  rev- 
elation follows  quite  naturally.  In  this  way  he 
laid  down  his  Cabala,  in  antithesis  to  the  super- 
ficial or  baser  Cabala,  which  occupies  itself  with 
the  Sephiroth,  and,  as  he  gibingly  said,  erects  a 
sort  of  "ten  unity"  instead  of  the  Christian 
Trinity. 

41 


THE   CABALA 

Abulafia  went  to  Italy,  and  in  Urbino  he  pub- 
lished (1279)  prophetic  writings,  in  which  he 
records  his  conversations  with  God.  In  1281  he 
undertook  to  convert  the  Pope,  Martin  IV,  to 
Judaism.  In  Messina  he  imagined  that  it  was 
revealed  to  him  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  and  an- 
nounced that  the  restoration  of  Israel  would  take 
place  in  1296.  Many  believed  in  him  and  pre- 
pared themselves  for  returning  to  the  holy  land. 
Others,  however,  raised  such  a  storm  of  opposi- 
tion that  Abulafia  had  to  escape  to  the  island  of 
Comino,  near  Malta  (about  1288),  where  he  re- 
mained for  some  time,  and  wrote  sundry  Cabal- 
istic works.  Of  his  many  works  Jellinek  pub- 
lished his  Rejoinder  to  Solomon  ben  Adereth, 
who  attacked  his  doctrines  and  pretensions  as 
Messiah  and  prophet. 

A  disciple  of  Abulafia  was  Joseph  Gikatilla  of 
Medina-Celi,  who  died  in  Penjafiel  after  1305. 
He,  too,  occupied  himself  with  the  mysticism  of 
letters  and  numbers,  and  with  the  transposition 
of  letters.  His  writings  are  in  reality  only  an 
echo  of  Abulafia's  fancies:  the  same  delusion  is 
apparent  in  both.  Gikatilla's  system  is  laid  down 
in  his  Ginnath  egos,  i.  e.,  "Garden  of  Nuts,"  pub- 
lished at  Hanau,  1615;  and  Shaare  ora,  i.  e.,  "the 
Gate  of  Light,"  first  published  at  Mantua,  1561, 

"  Auswahl  kabbalistischer  Mystic,  Part  I,  pp.  20-25 
(German  part). 

•12 


PRE-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

in  Cracow,  1600,  and  translated  into  Latin  by 
Knorr  von  Rosenroth  in  the  first  part  of  his 
Kabbala  Denudata,  Sulzbach,  1677-78. 

But  far  more  influential  and  more  pernicious 
than  Allatif,  Abulafia  and  Gikatilla  was  Moses 
de  Leon  (born  in  Leon  about  1250,  died  in  Are- 
valo,  1305),  the  author  of  a  book  which  gave  the 
Cabala  a  firm  foundation  and  wide  circulation, — 
in  brief,  raised  it  to  the  zenith  of  its  power.  This 
book  is  known  by  the  name  of  Zohar  or  Splendor. 
At  first  he  published  his  productions  under  his 
own  name  (about  1285).  But  as  his  writings 
were  not  sufficiently  noticed,  and  brought  him 
but  little  fame  and  money,  he  hit  upon  a  much 
more  effective  means  and  commenced  the  com- 
position of  books  under  feigned  but  honored 
names.  If  he  put  the  doctrines  of  the  Cabala 
into  the  mouth  of  an  older,  highly  venerated  au- 
thority, he  was  sure  to  be  successful  in  every 
respect.  And  he  selected  for  this  purpose  the 
Tanaite  Simon  ben  Jochai,30  who  according  to 
tradition  spent  thirteen  years  in  a  cave,  solitary 
and  buried  in  profound  reflection,  and  whom  an- 
cient mysticism  represented  as  receiving  revela- 
tions from  the  prophet  Elijah.  Simon  ben  Jochai 
was  assuredly  the  right  authority  for  the  Cabala. 
But  he  must  not  write  or  speak  Hebrew,  but 
Chaldee,  a  language  peculiarly  fit  for  secrets,  and 

80  See  my  article  s.  v.  in  McClintock  and   Strong's 
Cyclop.,  Vol.  IX,  p.  757. 

43 


THE   CABALA 

sounding  as  if  from  another  world.  And  thus 
there  came  into  the  world  a  book,  the  "Zohar," 
which  for  many  centuries  was  held  by  the  Jews 
as  a  heavenly  revelation,  and  was  studied  even 
by  Christians. 


44 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  ZOHAR. 

The  Book  of  Splendor.— The  titles  of  the 
Zohar  vary.  It  is  called  "Midrash  of  Rabbi 
Simon  ben  Jochai,"  from  its  reputed  author: 
" Midrash,  Let  there  be  Light,"  from  the  words 
in  Gen.  i.  4 ;  more  commonly  "Sepher  ha-Zohar," 
from  Dan.  xii.  3,  where  the  word  Zohar  is  used 
for  "the  brightness  of  the  firmament."  The  title 
in  full  is :  Sepher  ha-Zohar  al  ha-Torah,  me-ish 
Elohim  Kodesh,  hu  more  meod  ha-tana  R.  Simon 
ben  Jochai,  etc.,  i.  e.,  "The  Book  of  Splendor  on 
the  Law,  by  the  very  holy  and  venerable  man  of 
God,  the  Tanaite  rabbi  Simon  ben  Jochai,  of 
blessed  memory." 

The  editio  princeps  is  the  one  of  Mantua  (3 
vols.,  1558-1560)  and  has  often  been  reprinted. 
The  best  edition  of  the  book  of  Zohar  is  that  by 
Christian  Knorr  von  Rosenroth,  with  Jewish 
commentaries  (Sulzbach,  1684,  fol.)  to  which 
his  rare  Kabbala  Denudata  (1677-1684)  forms 
an  ample  introduction.     This    edition    was    re- 

45 


THE   CABALA 

printed  with  an  additional  index  (Amsterdam, 
1714,  1728,  1772,  1805,  3  vols.).  Recent  editions 
of  the  Zohar  were  published  at  Breslau  (1866,  3 
vols.),  Livorno  (1877-78,  in  7  parts),  and  Wilna 
(1882,  3  vols.;  1882-83  in  10  parts,  containing 
many  commentaries  and  additions). 

The  body  of  the  work  takes  the  form  of  a  com- 
mentary of  a  highly  mystic  and  allegorical  char- 
acter extending  over  the  entire  Pentateuch;  but 
the  Zohar  is  not  considered  complete  without  the 
addition  of  certain  appendices  attributed  to  the 
same  author  or  to  some  of  his  personal  or  suc- 
cessional  disciples. 

These  supplementary  portions  are : 
1.  Siphra  di  Tseniutha,  i.  e.,  "The  Book  of 
Secrets"  or  "Mysteries,"  contained  in  Vol.  II, 
176-178.  It  contains  five  chapters  and  is  chiefly 
occupied  with  discussing  the  questions  involved 
in  the  creation.  In  the  second  and  third  chapters 
the  prophet  Elijah  communicates  the  secret 
which  he  learned  in  the  heavenly  school,  that  be- 
fore the  creation  of  the  world  God  was  unknown 
to  man,  but  made  known  his  essence  after  the 
creation  of  the  world.  The  history  of  the  crea- 
tion is  represented  under  the  figure  of  a  scale, 
which  adjusts  the  opposite  aspects  of  God  before 
and  after  the  creation.  This  portion  has  been 
translated  into  Latin  by  Rosenroth  in  the  second 
volume  of  his  Kabbala  Denudata  (Frankfort-on- 


46 


THE  ZOHAR 

the-Main,  1684;  Englished  by  Mathers,  loc,  cit., 
pp.  43-108). 

2.  Iddera  Rabba,  i.  e.,  "The  Great  Assembly," 
referring  to  the  community  or  college  of  Simon's 
disciples  in  their  conferences  for  cabalistic  dis- 
cussion. These  discussions  are  chiefly  occupied 
with  a  description  of  the  form  and  various  mem- 
bers of  the  Deity;  a  disquisition  on  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Deity,  in  his  two  aspects  of  the 
"Aged"  and  the  "Young,"  to  the  creation  and 
the  universe;  as  well  as  on  the  diverse  gigantic 
members  of  the  Deity,  such  as  the  head,  the 
beard,  the  eyes,  the  nose,  etc.,  etc.;  a  dissertion 
on  pneumatology,  demonology,  etc.,  etc.  This 
part  is  generally  found  in  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  127b-l4Sa, 
and  has  been  translated  into  Latin  by  Rosenroth, 
loc.  cit,  and  Englished  by  Mathers,  pp.  109-257. 

3.  Iddera  Zuta,  i.  e.,  "The  Small  Assembly," 
referring  to  the  few  disciples  who  still  assembled 
for  cabalistic  discussion  towards  the  end  of  their 
master's  life  or  after  his  decease.  It  is  to  a 
great  extent  a  recapitulation  of  the  Iddera  Rabba, 
and  concludes  with  recording  the  death  of  Simon 
ben  Jochai,  the  Sacred  Light  and  the  medium 
through  whom  God  revealed  the  contents  of  the 
Zohar.  This  part  is  found  in  Vol.  Ill,  287b- 
296b,  and  from  the  Latin  of  Rosenroth  (Vol.  II 
of  the  Kabbala  Denudata)  it  has  been  Englished 
by  Mathers,  pp.  259-341. 


47 


THE   CABALA 

To  these  three  larger  appendices  are  added  fif- 
teen other  minor  fragments,  viz. : 

4.  Saba,  i.  e.,  'The  Aged  Man,"  also  called 
"Saba  demishpatim"  or  "The  Discourse  of  the 
Aged  in  Mishpatim,"  given  in  II,  94a-114a.  "The 
Aged"  is  the  prophet  Elijah  who  holds  converse 
with  Rabbi  Simon  about  the  doctrine  of  metem- 
psychosis, and  the  discussion  is  attached  to  the 
Sabbatic  section  called  "Mishpatim,"  i.  e.,  Exod* 
xxi,  1-xxiv.  18. 

5.  Midrash  Ruth,  a  fragment. 

6.  Sepher  hab-bahir,  i.  e.,  "The  Book  of  Clear 
Light." 

7  and  8.  Tosephta  and  Mattanitan,  i.  e.,  "Small 
Additional  Pieces,"  which  are  found  in  the  three 
volumes. 

9.  Rata  mehemna,  i.  e.,  "The  Faithful  Shep- 
herd," found  in  the  second  and  third  volumes. 
The  faithful  shepherd  is  Moses  who  holds  a  dia- 
logue with  Rabbi  Simon,  at  which  not  only  the 
prophet  Elijah  is  present,  but  Abraham,  Isaac, 
Jacob,  Aaron,  David,  Solomon,  and  even  God 
himself  make  their  appearance. 

10.  Hekaloth,  i.  e.,  "The  palaces,"  found  in 
the  first  and  second  volumes,  treats  of  the  topo- 
graphical structure  of  paradise  and  hell. 

11.  Sithre  Torah,  i.  e.,  "The  Secrets  of  the 
Law." 

12.  Midrash  han-neelam,  i.  e.,  "The  Concealed 


48 


THE  ZOHAR 

Treatise,"  in  which  passages  of  Scripture  are  ex- 
plained mystically.  Thus  Lot's  two  daughters 
are  the  two  proclivities  in  man,  good  and  evil 
(I,  110).  It  also  discourses  on  the  properties 
and  destiny  of  the  soul. 

13.  Raze  de  Razin,  i.  e.,  "Mysteries  of  Mys- 
teries," contained  in  II,  70a-75a,  is  especially  de- 
voted to  the  physiognomy  of  the  Cabala,  and  the 
connection  of  the  soul  with  the  body. 

14.  Mid  rash  Chazith,  on  the  Song  of  Songs. 

15.  Maamar  to  Chazi,  a  discourse,  so  entitled 
from  the  first  words,  "Come  and  see." 

16.  Yanuka,  i.  e.,  "The  Youth,"  given  in  III, 
\86a-192a,  records  the  discourses  delivered  by  a 
young  man  who  according  to  R.  Simon  was  of 
superhuman  origin. 

17.  Pekuda,  i.  e.,  "Illustrations  of  the  Law." 

18.  Chibbura  Kadmaah,  i.  e.,  "The  Early 
Work." 

The  body  of  the  work  is  sometimes  called  Zo- 
har  Gadol,  "The  Great  Zohar." 

Authorship  of  the  Zohar. — Who  is  the  au- 
thor of  this  remarkable  book,  which  has  contin- 
ued to  be  a  text-book  up  to  the  present  day,  for 
all  those  who  have  espoused  the  doctrines  of  the 
Cabala?  We  have  anticipated  the  answer,  but  let 
us  see  which  reasons  were  adduced  by  modern 
scholarship  to  prove  that  the  Zohar  is  a  forgery 
of  the  thirteenth  century. 
49 


THE    CABALA 

Now  the  Zohar  pretends  to  be    a    revelation 
from  God  communicated  through  Rabbi  Simon 
ben  Jochai*  to  his  select  disciples,  according  to 
the  Iddera  Zuta  (Zohar  III,  287b).    This  decla- 
ration and  the  repeated  representation  of  Rabbi 
Simon  ben  Jochai,    as    speaking    and    teaching 
throughout  the  production  fixed  the  authorship 
upon     Rabbi     Simon,     an     opinion     maintained 
not    only    by    Jews     for    centuries,    but    even 
by      distinguished      Christian      scholars.        On 
the     other     hand     it     has     been     clearly     dem- 
onstrated   by    such    Jewish    scholars    as    Zunz, 
Geiger,  Jellinek,   Graetz,   Steinschneider,  and   a 
host  of  others,  that  the  Zohar  is  not  the  produc- 
tion of  Rabbi  Simon,  but  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, by  Moses  de  Leon   ( 1250-1305). 1     Simon 
ben  Jochai  was  a  pupil  of  Rabbi  Akiba ;  but  the 
earliest  mention  of  the  book's  existence  occurs  in 
the  year  1290,  and  the  anachronisms  of  its  style 
and  in  the  facts  referred  to,  together  with  the 
circumstance  that  it  speaks  of  the  vowel-points 
and  other  Masoretic  inventions  which  are  clearly 

■  See  my  article  s.  v.  in  McClintock  and  Strong  Pro- 
fessor Strack,  who  is  entitled  to  a  hearing  in  matters  of 
Rabbinic  literature,  says:  "He  [Rabbi  Simon]  has 
long  been  regarded  as  the  author  of  the  Zohar;  but  this 
mam  work  of  the  Cabala  was  in  reality  composed  in 
Spain  by  Moses  ben  Shem  Tob  de  Leon  in  the  second 
ri.ll  °i  tG  th"'t«ent1h  century,  as  has  been  proved  espe- 
?7*&  byJa,co-b  Emden<  in  Mrtpahath  Sepharim,  Altona, 
93  ~Emleitni,g  m  dcn  Talmud,  4th  ed.,  Leipsic,  1908^ 

50 


THE  ZOHAR 

posterior  to  the  Talmud,  justify  J.  Morinus  (al- 
though too  often  extravagant  in  his  wilful  at- 
tempts to  depreciate  the  antiquity  of  the  latter 
Jewish  writings)  in  asserting  that  the  author 
could  not  have  lived  much  before  the  year  1000 
of  the  Christian  era  (Exercitationes  Biblicae,  pp. 
358-369).  This  later  view  of  the  authorship  is 
sustained  by  the  following  reasons : 

1.  The  Zohar  most  fulsomely  praises  its  own 
author,  calls  him  the  Sacred  Light,  and  exalts 
him  above  Moses,  "the  faithful  Shepherd"  (Zo- 
har III,  1326;  144a),  while  the  disciples  deify 
Rabbi  Simon,  before  whom  all  men  must  appear 
(II,  38a). 

2.  The  Zohar  quotes  and  mystically  explains 
the  Hebrew  vowel-points  (I,  \6b,  24b;  II,  116a; 
III,  65a),  which  were  introduced  later.2 

3.  The  Zohar  (II,  32a)  mentions  the  Crusades, 
the  temporary  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Cru- 
saders from  the  Infidels,  and  the  retaking  of  it 
by  the  Saracens. 

4.  The  Zohar  (III,  2126)  records  events  which 
transpired  A.  D.  1264. 

5.  The  doctrine  of  En-Soph  and  the  Sephiroth, 
as  well  as  the  metempsychosian  retribution,  were 
not  known  before  the  thirteenth  century. 

6.  The  very  existence  of  the  Zohar,  according 
to  the  stanch  Cabalist  Jehudah  Chayoth   (about 

2  See  my  article  "Vowel-Points"  in  McClintock  and 
Strong. 

51 


THE   CABALA 

1500),  was  unknown  to  such  distinguished  Cabal- 
ists  as  Nachmanides  and  Ben-Adereth  (1235- 
1310)  ;  the  first  who  mentions  it  is  Todros  Abu- 
lafia  (1234-1306). 

7.  Isaac  of  Akko  (about  1290)  affirms  that 
"The  Zohar  was  put  into  the  world  from  the 
head  of  a  Spaniard." 

8.  The  Zohar  contains  passages  which  Moses 
de  Leon  translated  into  Aramaic  from  his  works, 
e.  g.,  the  Sepher  ha-Rlmmon,  as  Jellinek  has  dem- 
onstrated in  his  Moses  de  Leon  und  sein  Verhalt- 
niss  sum  Sohar,"  Leipsic,  1851,  p.  21-36;  (see 
also  Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Judcn,  VII,  498;  2d 
ed.,  1873,  p.  477  et  seq.). 

These  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  the  Zohar 
is  now  regarded  as  a  pseudograph  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  and  that  Moses  de  Leon  should 
have  palmed  the  Zohar  upon  Simon  ben  Jocha'i 
was  nothing  remarkable,  since  this  rabbi  is  re- 
garded by  tradition  as  the  embodiment  of  mysti- 
cism. There  was  also  a  financial  reason,  for  from 
the  Book  Juchasin  (pp.  88,  89,  95,  ed.  Filipowski, 
London,  1857)  we  learn  that  when  his  wife  asked 
him  why  he  published  the  production  of  his  own 
intellect  under  another  man's  name,  Moses  de 
Leon  replied  "that  if  he  were  to  publish  it  under 
his  own  name  nobody  would  buy  it,  whereas  un- 
der the  name  of  Rabbi  Simon  ben  Jochai  it 
yielded  him  a  large  revenue." 


52 


THE  ZOHAR 

With  the  appearance  of  the  Zohar  we  find  also 
a  Zohar  School,  which  is  a  combination  and  ab- 
sorption of  the  different  features  and  doctrines  of 
all  the  former  methods,  without  any  plan  or 
method ;  and  we  must  not  be  surprised  at  the  wild 
speculations  which  we  so  often  find  in  the  writ- 
ings of  the  post-Zohar  period.  In  Spain  espe- 
cially the  study  of  the  Zohar  took  deep  root,  and 
found  its  way  to  Italy,  Palestine  and  Poland. 


53 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  CABALA  IN  THE  POST-ZOHAR 
PERIOD. 

Visionary  Teachings. — The  new  text-book 
of  religion  which  was  introduced  into  Judaism 
by  stealth,  "placed  the  Kabbala,  which  a  century 
before  had  been  unknown,  on  the  same  level  as 
the  Bible  and  the  Talmud,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
on  a  still  higher  level.  The  Zohar  undoubtedly 
produced  good,  in  so  far  as  it  opposed  enthusiasm 
to  the  legal  dry-as-dust  manner  of  the  study  of 
the  Talmud,  stimulated  the  imagination  and  the 
feelings,  and  cultivated  a  disposition  that  re- 
strained the  reasoning  faculty.  But  the  ills  which 
it  has  brought  on  Judaism  outweigh  the  good  by 
far.  The  Zohar  confirmed  and  propagated  a 
gloomy  superstition,  and  strengthened  in  people's 
minds  the  belief  in  the  Kingdom  of  Satan,  in 
evil  spirits  and  ghosts.  Through  its  constant  use 
of  coarse  expression,  often  verging  on  the  sens- 
ual, in  contradistinction  to  the  chaste,  pure  spirit 
pervading  Jewish  literature,  the  Zohar  sowed  the 

54 


POST-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

seeds  of  unclean  desires,  and  later  on  produced 
a  sect  that  laid  aside  all  regard  for  decency. 
Finally,  the  Zohar  blunted  the  sense  for  the  sim- 
ple and  the  true,  and  created  a  visionary  world  in 
which  the  souls  of  those  who  zealously  occupied 
themselves  with  it  were  lulled  into  a  sort  of  half- 
sleep  and  lost  the  faculty  of  distinguishing  be- 
tween right  and  wrong.  Its  quibbling  interpreta- 
tions of  Holy  Writ,  adopted  by  the  Kabbalists 
and  others  infected  with  this  mannerism,  per- 
verted the  verses  and  words  of  the  Holy  Book, 
and  made  the  Bible  the  wrestling-ground  of  the 
most  curious  insane  notions." 

During  the  thirteenth  century  the  Cabala  was 
represented  in  Italy  by  Menahem  di  Recanati  who 
wrote  a  commentary  on  the  Pentateuch  which  is 
little  else  than  a  commentary  on  the  Zohar.  This 
work  was  translated  into  Latin  by  Pico  della 
Mirandola. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century 
Joseph  ben  Abraham  ibn  Wakkar  (1290-1340) 
endeavored  to  reconcile  the  Cabala  with  phil- 
osophy, and  to  this  end  wrote  a  treatise  on  the 
cardinal  doctrines  of  the  Cabala.  An  analysis  of 
this  treatise,  which  is  still  in  manuscript  in  the 
Bodleian  library  (cod.  Laud.  119;  described  by 
Uri  No.  384)  is  given  by  Steinschneider  in  Ersch 
und  Gruber's  Allgemeine  Encyclopadie,  Part  II, 
Vol.  XXXI,  p.  100  f. 


55 


THE   CABALA 

During  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries 
the  Cabala  was  especially  cultivated  in  Spain.  In 
unmeasured  terms  the  Zoharites  denounced  their 
co-religionists  who  could  not  see  the  advantages 
of  the  Cabala.  Prominent  among  the  Zoharites 
was  Abraham  of  Granada,  who  composed  (be- 
tween 1391  and  1409)  a  cabalistic  work  Berith 
menuchat,  "The  Covenant  of  Peace,"  (Amster- 
dam, 1648),  a  farrago  of  strange  names  of  the 
Deity  and  the  angels,  of  transposed  letters,  and 
jugglery  with  vowels  and  accents.  "He  had  the 
hardihood,"  says  Graetz,  "to  teach  that  those  who 
could  not  apprehend  God  by  Cabalistic  methods 
belonged  to  the  weak  in  faith,  were  ignorant  sin- 
ners, and  like  the  depraved  and  the  apostate  were 
overlooked  by  God,  and  not  found  worthy  of 
His  special  providence.  He  thought  that  the  re- 
linquishment of  their  religion  by  cultured  Jews 
was  explained  by  their  fatal  application  to  scien- 
tific study,  and  their  contempt  for  the  Cabala. 
On  the  other  hand  he  professed  to  see  in  the  per- 
secutions of  1391,  and  in  the  conversion  of  so 
many  prominent  Jews  to  Christianity,  the  tokens 
of  the  Messianic  age,  the  suffering  that  must  pre- 
cede it,  and  the  approach  of  the  redemption." 
Another  such  writer  was  Shem  Tob  ben  Joseph 
ibn  Shem  Tob  (died  1430),  author  of  Emunoth, 
i.  e.,  "Faithfulness"  (Ferrara,  1557),  in  which 
he  attacks  Jewish  thinkers  and  philosophers  as 


56 


POST-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

heretics,  and  maintains  that  the  salvation  of  Is- 
rael depends  upon  the  Cabala.  The  third  writer 
was  Moses  Botarel  (or  Botarelo),  also  a  Span- 
iard, who  claimed  to  be  a  thaumaturge  and 
prophet,  and  even  announced  himself  as  the  Mes- 
siah. He  prophesied  that  in  the  spring  of  1393 
the  Messianic  age  would  be  ushered  in.  As  the 
Cabala  penetrated  all  branches  of  life  and  litera- 
ture, voices  were  also  raised  against  the  Zohar. 
The  first  among  the  Jews  who  opposed  its  author- 
ity was  Elias  del  Medigo,  who  in  his  Bechinath 
ha-daath  (i.  e.,  ''Examination  of  the  Law,"  writ- 
ten in  December,  1491)  openly  expressed  his 
opinion  that  the  Zohar  was  the  production  of  a 
forger,  and  that  the  Cabala  was  made  Up  of  the 
rags  and  tatters  of  the  neo-Platonic  school.  But 
his  voice  and  that  of  others  had  no  power  to 
check  the  rapid  progress  of  the  Cabala,  which 
had  now  found  its  way  from  Spain  and  Italy  into 
Palestine  and  Poland. 

Wonder  Workers  and  Prophets. — Passing 
over  some  minor  advocates  and  teachers  of  the 
Cabala,  we  must  mention  two  scholars  in  Pales- 
tine, who  distinguished  themselves  as  masters  of 
the  Cabala,  Moses  Cordovero1  and  Isaac  Luria. 
The  former  (1522-1570)  was  a  pupil  of  Solomon 
Alkabez2  and  wrote  many  works  on  the  Cabala. 
His  principal  work  is  the  Pardes  Rim-monim,  i. 

1  See  my  article  s.  v.  "Moses  Cordovero,"  loc.  cit. 
57 


THE    CABALA 

e.,  "The  Garden  of  Pomegranates."  (Cracow, 
1591),  excerpts  of  which  have  been  translated 
into  Latin  by  Bartolocci  in  Bibliotheca  Magna 
Rabbinicia,  Vol.  IV,  p.  231  f.,  and  by  Knorr  von 
RosenrotTi,  "Tractatus  de  Anima  ex  libro  Pardes 
Rimonim"  in  his  Kabbala  Denudata,  Sulzbach, 
1677.  Cordovero  is  chiefly  occupied  with  the  sci- 
entific speculations  of  the  Cabala,  or  the  specula- 
tive Cabala,  in  contradistinction  to  the  wonder- 
working Cabala,  which  was  represented  by  Isaac 
Luria  (born  in  Jerusalem  in  1534,  and  died 
1572).  He  claimed  to  have  constant  interviews 
with  the  prophet  Elijah,  who  communicated  to 
him  sublime  doctrines.  He  visited  the  sepulchers 
of  ancient  teachers,  and  there,  by  prostrations  and 
prayers,  obtained  from  their  spirits  all  manner  of 
revelations.  He  was  convinced  that  he  was  the 
Messiah,  the  son  of  Joseph,  and  that  he  was  able 
to  perform  all  sorts  of  miracles.  He  imagined 
a  complete  system  of  transmigration  and  combi- 
nation of  souls.  He  saw  spirits  everywhere;  he 
saw  how  the  souls  were  set  free  from  the  body 
at  death,  how  they  hovered  in  the  air,  or  rose  out 
of  their  graves.  On  the  Sabbath  he  dressed  in 
white,  and  wore  a  fourfold  garment  to  symbolize 
the  four  letters  of  the  name  of  God.  His  senti- 
ments he  delivered  orally  and  his  disciples  treas- 

2  He  is  the  author  of  a  hymn  "Lecha  dodi,"  i.  e., 
"Come  my  beloved,"  which  is  found  in  all  Jewish 
prayer-books,  and  used  in  the  service  for  Sabbath  eve. 

58 


POST-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

ured  up  his  marvelous  sayings,  whereby  they 
performed  miracles  and  converted  thousands  to 
the  doctrines  of  this  theosophy. 

His  disciples  were  divided  into  two  classes,  the 
"initiated"  and  the  "novices,"  who  boastfully 
called  themselves  "gure  ari"  i.  e.,  "the  lion's 
whelps."  They  systematically  circulated  the  most 
absurd  stories  about  Luria's  miracles,  and  thus 
it  came  about  that  his  cabalistic  doctrines  caused 
inexpressible  harm  in  Jewish  circles.  Through 
Luria's  influence  a  Judaism  of  the  Zohar  and  the 
Cabala  was  formed  side  by  side  with  the  Judaism 
of  the  Talmud  and  the  rabbis ;  for  it  was  due  to 
him  that  the  spurious  Zohar  was  placed  upon  a 
level  with,  indeed  higher  than,  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  the  Talmud. 

The  real  exponent  of  Luria's  cabalistic  system 
was  Chayim  Vital  Calabrese3  (1543-1620).  After 
his  master's  death  he  diligently  collected  all  the 
manuscript  notes  of  the  lectures  delivered  by 
Luria,  which  together  with  his  own  jottings  Vital 
published  under  the  title  of  Ez  chayim,  i.  e.,  "The 
Tree  of  Life,"*  having  spent  over  thirty  years 
upon  their  preparation.  The  work  consists  of 
six  parts ;  that  portion  which  treats  of  the  doc- 
trine of  metempsychosis  (Hagilgulim),  is  found 

8  See  my  article  s.  v.  "Vital"  in  McClintock  and 
Strong. 

*  For  a  description  of  the  component  parts  of  this 
work,  see  Fiirst,  Bibliotheca  Judaica,  III,  pp.  479-481. 

59 


THE   CABALA 

in  a  Latin  translation  in  Knorr  von  Rosenroth's 
work. 

The  Luria-Vital  system  found  many  adherents 
everywhere.  Abraham  de  Herera  (died  1639) 
wrote  in  Spanish  two  cabalistic  works,  the 
"House  of  God"  {beth  Elohim)  and  the  "Gate 
of  Heaven"  (shaar  ha-shemayim),  which  the 
Amsterdam  preacher  Isaac  Aboab  translated  into 
Hebrew.  Both  are  given  in  a  Latin  translation 
in  Knorr  von  Rosenroth's  work,  together  with 
a  translation  of  "The  Valley  of  the  King"  (emek 
ha-melech)  by  Naphtali  Frankfurter.  Besides 
these  we  may  mention  Isaiah  Horwitz  (died  at 
Tiberias  in  1629),  author  of  Sh'ne  luchoth  hab- 
erith  (abbreviated  Shela),  i.  e.,  "The  Two  Ta- 
bles of  the  Covenant,"  a  kind  of  Real-Encyclo- 
pedia of  Judaism  on  a  cabalistic  basis.  This 
work  has  been  often  reprinted  and  enjoys  a 
great  reputation  among  the  Jews.  Abridgments 
of  it  were  frequently  published  (Amsterdam, 
1683;  Venice,  1705;  Warsaw,  1879). 

There  were  not  wanting  those  who  opposed  the 
Cabala.  Of  the  numerous  opponents  which  the 
Zohar  and  Luria-Vital's  works  called  forth,  none 
was  so  daring,  so  outspoken  and  powerful  as 
Leon  de  Modena  of  Venice  (1571-1648).  He  is 
best  known  as  the  author  of  Hist  or  ia  dei  Riti 
Hebraici  ed  observanza  degli  Hebrei  di  quesii 
tempi,  or  the  "History  of  the  Rites,  Customs  and 

60 


POST-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

Manner  of  Life  of  the  Jews"  (Padua,  1640),  and 
translated  into  Latin,  French,  Dutch,  English.5 
But  besides  this  and  other  works,  he  also  wrote 
a  polemical  treatise  against  the  Cabalists,  whom 
he  despised  and  derided,  entitled  Ari  noham,  i. 
e.,  "Roaring  Lion,"  published  by  Julius  Furst, 
Leipsic,  1840.  In  this  treatise  he  shows  that  the 
cabalistic  works,  "which  are  palmed  upon  ancient 
authorities,  are  pseudonymous ;  that  the  doctrines 
themselves  are  mischievous ;  and  that  the  follow- 
ers of  this  system  are  inflated  with  proud  no- 
tions, pretending  to  know  the  nature  of  God  bet- 
ter than  any  one  else,  and  to  possess  the  nearest 
and  best  way  of  approaching  the  Deity."  He 
even  went  so  far  as  to  question  whether  God  will 
ever  forgive  those  who  printed  the  cabalistic 
works  (comp.  Furst,  p.  7),  and  this  no  doubt, 
because  so  many  Cabalists  joined  the  Church. 

But  no  opposition  could  stem  the  tide  of  the 
Cabala.  Its  wonder-working  branch  had  now 
largely  laid  hold  on  the  minds  and  fancies  of  the 
Jews,  and  was  producing  among  them  the  most 
mournful  and  calamitous  effects.  The  chief  ac- 
tor in  this  tragedy  was  the  cabalist  Sabbatai  Zebi,6 

'The  English  translation  is  found  in  Picard's  Cere- 
monies and  Religious  Customs  of  the  Various  Nations 
of  the  Known  World,  Vol.  I,  London,  1733. 

6  See  my  article  s.  v.  "Sabbatai  Zebi"  in  McClintock 
and  Strong;  see  also  Geschichte  des  Sabbatai-Zebi,  sein 
Leben  und  Treiben,  Warsaw,  1883;  and  Der  Erzbe- 
triiger  Sabbatai  Sevi,  der  letzte  falsche  Messias  der 
Juden,  etc.,  Halle,  1760;  Berlin,  1908. 

61 


THE   CABALA 


born  at  Smyrna,  July,  1641.    When  fifteen  years 
of  age  he  rapidly  mastered  the  mysteries  of  the 
Cabala,  which  he  expounded  before  crowded  aud- 
iences at  the  age  of  eighteen.    When  twenty-four 
years  of  age,  he  revealed  to  his  disciples  that  he 
was  the  Messiah,  the  son  of  David,  the  true  Re- 
deemer, and  that  he  was  to  redeem  and  deliver 
Israel  from  their  captivity.    At  the  same  time  he 
publicly  pronounced  the  Tetragrammaton,7  which 
the  high  priest  was  only  permitted  to  do  on  the 
day  of  atonement.     As  he  would  not  desist,  he 
was  excommunicated  by  the    Jewish    sages    at 
Smyrna.     He  went  to  Salonica,  Athens,  Morea 
and  Jerusalem,  teaching  his  doctrines,  proclaim- 
ing himself  the  Messiah,  anointing  prophets  and 
converting  thousands  upon  thousands.     As  his 
followers  prepared  to  be  led  back  by  him  to  Jeru- 
salem, they  wound  up  their  affairs,  and  in  many 
places  trade  was  entirely  stopped.    By  the  order 
of  the  Sultan,  Mohammed  IV,   Sabbathai  Zevi 
was  arrested  and  taken  before  him  at  Adrian- 
ople.     The  Sultan  said  to  him:     "I  am  going  to 
test  thy  Messiahship.     Three    poisoned    arrows 
shall  be  shot  into  thee,  and  if  they  do  not  kill 
thee,  I  too  will  believe  that  thou  art  the  Messiah." 
He  saved  himself  by  embracing  Islamism  in  the 
presence  of  the  Sultan,  who  gave  him  the  name 
Effendi,  and  appointed  him  Kapidji-Bashi.    Sab- 

7  Called  by  the  Jews  shem-hammephorash,  on  which 
see  my  article  s.  v.  in  McClintock  and  Strong. 
62 


POST-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

bathai  died  Sept.  10,  1676,  after  having  ruined 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  Jewish  families.  In 
spite  of  this  fiasco  the  number  of  Sabbathai's  fol- 
lowers was  not  diminished. 

Famous  as  a  champion  of  orthodoxy  was  Jacob 
Israel  Emden  (1696-1776)  rabbi  of  Altona. 
During  his  rabbinate  there,  the  famous  Jonathan 
Eybenschutz8  (born  in  Cracow  in  1690)  was 
called  to  Altona  in  1750,  since  the  German  and 
Polish  Jews  were  divided  in  that  place.  As  every 
rabbi  was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  magician,  the 
new-comer  was  expected  to  stop  the  epidemic 
raging  at  that  time  in  the  city.  Eybenschutz  pre- 
pared amulets,  which  he  distributed  among  the 
people.  For  curiosity's  sake  one  was  opered, 
and  lo !  in  it  was  written :  "O  thou  God  of  Israel, 
who  dwellest  in  the  beauty  of  thy  power,  send 
down  salvation  to  this  person  through  the  merit 
of  thy  servant  Sabbathai  Zevi,  in  order  that  thy 
name,  and  the  name  of  the  Messiah  Sabbathai 
Zevi,  may  be  hallowed  in  the  wrorld."  This  am- 
ulet came  into  the  hands  of  Emden.  Eyben- 
schutz denied  all  connection  with  the  adherents 
of  Sabbathai,  and  as  he  had  already  gained  a 
great  influence,  he  was  believed ;  at  least,  almost 
everybody  kept  quiet.  But  Emden  was  not  quiet, 
and  finally  the  ban  was  pronounced  against  Ey- 
benschutz.    Even  the  King  Frederic  V  of  Den- 

8  See  mv  article  s.  v.  "Eybenschutz"  in  loc.  cit.,  Vol. 
XII,  p.  367. 

63 


THE   CABALA 

mark  sided  with  Emden,  and  Eybenschiitz  lost 
his  position.  Being  forsaken  by  his  friends,  Ey- 
benschiitz went  to  his  former  pupil,  Moses  Ger- 
son  Kohen,  who  after  baptism  took  the  name  of 
Karl  Anton.  Anton  wrote  an  apology  in  behalf 
of  his.  teacher,  which  he  dedicated  to  the  King  of 
Denmark.  This  and  other  influences  had  the 
effect  that  the  whole  affair  was  dropped  and  Ey- 
benschiitz was  elected  anew  as  rabbi  of  the  con- 
gregation. Eybenschiitz  died  in  1764  and  was 
followed  twelve  years  later  by  his  opponent  Em- 
den. Both  are  buried  in  the  Jewish  cemetery  of 
Altona. 

Another  Zoharite  was  Jacob  Frank9  (Jankiew 
Lebowicz),  the  founder  of  the  Jewish  sect  of  the 
Frankists,  born  in  Poland  in  1712.  He  acquired 
a  great  reputation  as  a  Cabalist,  and  settled  in 
Podolia,  where  he  preached  a  new  doctrine,  the 
fundamental  principles  of  which  he  had  borrowed 
from  the  teachings  of  Sabbathai  Zevi.  He  was 
arrested  through  the  influence  of  the  rabbis,  but 
was  liberated  through  the  intervention  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  clergy,  and  authorized  by  the  King 
to  profess  freely  his  tenets.  His  followers  then, 
under  the  name  of  Zoharites  and  Anti-Talmud- 
ists  oppressed  their  former  adversaries  in  turn. 
As  the  papal  nuncio  at  Warsaw  declared  against 
them,  Frank  and  most  of  his  adherents  embraced 

0  Cotnp.  Gractz,  Frank  und  die  Frankisten,  Berlin, 
1868. 

64 


POST-ZOHAR  PERIOD 

Christianity.  Frank  continued  to  make  prose- 
lytes and  his  sect  increased  in  Poland  and  Bo- 
hemia. He  lived  in  princely  style  on  means  furn- 
ished him  by  his  followers,  and  died  at  Offen- 
bach, in  Hesse,  December  10,  1791. 

The  Cabalists  of  the  eighteenth  century,  with 
the  exception  of  Moses  Chayim  Luzzatto  (born 
1707,  died  1747),  are  of  little  importance.  Mod- 
ern influences  gradually  put  a  stop  to  the  author- 
ity of  the  Cabala,  and  modern  Judaism  sees  in  the 
Cabala  in  general  only  an  historical  curiosity  or 
an  object  of  literary  historical  disquisitions. 


65 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  DOCTRINES  OF 
THE  CABALA. 

God  arid  Creation. — After  having  become  ac- 
quainted in  previous  chapters  with  the  principal 
actors  in  the  cabalistic  drama  we  are  now  pre- 
pared to  examine  the  tenets  of  the  Cabala. 

Different  from  the  system  as  exhibited  in  the 
Book  of  Creation  or  Jezirah  is  that  of  the  Zohar, 
because  the  more  difficult,  since  it  embraces  not 
merely  the  origin  of  the  world,  but  likewise 
speculates  on  the  essence  of  God  and  the  proper- 
ties of  man ;  in  other  words  it  treats  of  theology, 
cosmology  and  anthropology. 

Starting  from  the  idea  of  the  Supreme  Being 
as  boundless  in  his  nature — which  necessarily  im- 
plies that  he  is  an  absolute  unity  and  inscrutable, 
and  that  there  is  nothing  without  him — God  is 
called  En  Soph,  i.  e.,  "endless,"  "boundless."  In 
this  boundlessness  God  cannot  be  comprehended 
by  the  intellect,  nor  described  in  words ;  for  there 
is  nothing  which  can  grasp  him  and  depict  him 

66 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

to  us,1  and  as  such  he  is  in  a  certain  sense  not 
existent  (ay in)  ;  since,  as  far  as  our  mind  is  con- 
cerned, that  which  is  incomprehensible  does  not 
exist. 

The  En  Soph,  not  being  an  object  of  cognition, 
made  his  existence  known  in  the  creation  of  the 
world  by  means  of  attributes  or  mediums,  the  ten 
Sephiroth,  or  intelligences,  radiations,  emanations, 
emanating  from  the  En  Soph,  and  which  in  their 
totality  represent  and  are  called  the  Adam  Kad~ 
mon,  the  "Primordial  or  Archetypal  Man." 

The  first  Sephirah  is  called  Kether,  "Crown" ; 
the  second  Chochma,  "Wisdom" ;  the  third  Bina, 
"Intelligence";  the  fourth  Chesed,  "Mercy";  the 
fifth  Din,  "Judgment" ;  the  sixth  Tiphereth, 
"Beauty";  the  seventh  Nczach,  "Splendor";  the 
eighth  Hod,  "Majesty";  the  ninth  Jesod,  "Foun- 
dation" ;  the  tenth  Malchuth,  "Kingdom." 

Now  the  first  Sephirah,  which  is  called  the 
Crown,  the  Aged,2  the  Primordial  or  the  Smooth 
Point,3  the  White  Head,  the  Long  Face,  Macro- 

1  Rabbi  Azariel  in  his  commentary  on  the  ten  Seph- 
iroth tells  us  that  "the  En  Soph  can  neither  be  com- 
prehended by  the  intellect,  nor  described  in  words ;  for 
there  is  no  letter  or  word  which  can  grasp  him."  With 
this  compare  what  Proclus,  the  neo-Platonist,  says  in 
his  Theology  of  Plato,  II,  6:  "Although  the  Divinity 
is  generally  called  the  unity  (to  eV)  or  the  first,  it  would 
be  better  if  no  name  were  given  him ;  for  there  is  no 
word  which  can  depict  his  nature — he  is  the  inexpress- 
ible (<w>/™c),  the  unknown  (dyvcoaros) .  Isaac  ibn 
Latif  (1220-1290)  even  says  "God  is  in  all,  and  every- 
thing is  in  God." 

67 


THE   CABALA 

prosopon,  the  Inscrutable  Height,4  contained  the 
other  nine  Sephiroth  and  gave  rise  to  them  in 
the  following  order :  from  the  first  Sephirah  pro- 
ceeded a  masculine  or  active  potency  designated 
(2)  Chochma,  "Wisdom,"  and  an  opposite,  i.  e., 
a  feminine  or  passive  potency,  called  (3)  Bina> 
"Intelligence."  These  two  opposite  potencies  are 
joined  together  by  the  first  potency,  and  thus 
yield  the  first  triad  of  the  Sephiroth.  From  the 
junction  of  the  foregoing  opposites,  which  are 
also  called  "Father"  (abba)  and  "Mother"  (im~ 
ma)  emanated  again  the  masculine  or  active  po- 
tency called  (4)  Chesed,  "Mercy  or  Love,"  also 
Gedulah,  "Greatness,"  and  from  this  again  ema- 
nated the  feminine  or  passive  potency  called  (5) 
Din,  "Judgment,"  also  Geburah,  "Judical  Power." 
From  this  again  emanated  the  uniting  potency 
(6)  Tiphereth,  "Beauty."  We  have  thus  the  sec- 
ond trinity  of  the  Sephiroth.  Now  Beauty 
beamed  forth  the  masculine  or  active  potency  (7) 
Nezach,  "Splendor,"  and  this  again  gave  rise  to 
(8)  the  feminine  or  passive  potency  Hod,  "Maj- 
esty"; from  it  again  emanated  (9)  Jesod,  "Foun- 

2  This  must  not  be  confounded  with  "the  Aged  of 
the  Aged"  as  the  En  Soph  is  called. 

3  When  the  Concealed  of  the  Concealed  wished  to 
reveal  himself,  he  first  made  a  single  point;  the  Infinite 
was  entirely  unknown,  and  diffused  no  light  before  this 
luminous  point  violently  broke  through  into  vision." 
(Zohar,  I,  15a.) 

4  So  called  by  Rabbi  Azariel. 

68 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

dation,"  which  yields  the  third  trinity.  From 
Jesod,  finally  emanated  (10)  Malchiith,  "King- 
dom," also  called  Schechinah. 

The  Cabalists  delight  in  representing  the  ten 
Sephiroth  under  different  forms;  now  as  Adam 
Kadmon,  "Primordial  or  Archetypal  Man,"  now 
as  the  cabalistic  tree  or  the  Ilan,  in  which  the 
crown  is  represented  by  the  first  Sephirah  and 
the  root  by  the  last. 

The  Divine  Man.- — As  to  the  Adam  Kadmon 
which  is  shown  in  the  following  figure,  the  Crown 
represents  the  head;  Wisdom,  the  brains;  Intel- 
ligence which  unites  the  two  and  produces  the 
first  triad,  the  heart  or  the  understanding.  The 
fourth  and  fifth  Sephiroth,  i.  e.,  Love  and  Jus- 
tice are  the  two  arms,  the  former  the  right  arm 
and  the  latter  the  left;  one  distributing  life  and 
the  other  death.  The  sixth  Sephirah,  Beauty, 
uniting  these  two  opposites  and  producing  the 
second  triad,  is  the  chest.  Firmness  and  Splen- 
dor of  the  third  triad  represent  the  two  legs, 
whereas  Foundation,  the  ninth  Sephirah,  repre- 
sents the  genital  organs,  since  it  denotes  the  basis 
and  source  of  all  things.  Finally  Kingdom,  the 
tenth  Sephirah,  represents  the  harmony  of  the 
whole  Archetypal  Man. 

Now  in  looking  at  the  Sephiroth  which  con- 
stitute the  first  triad,  it  will  be  seen  that  they 

69 


THE   CABALA 


represent  the  intellect;  hence  this  triad  is  called 
by  Azariel  the  ''intellectual  world"  (olam  muskal 


Fig.    1.      ADAM    KADMON,   THE   ARCHETYPAL    MAN. 

or  olam  ha-sechel).    The  second  triad  which  rep- 
70 


ITS  DOCTRINES 


resents  moral  qualities,  is  called  the  "moral"  or 
"sensuous  world"  (olam  murgash,  also  olam  ha- 


,  Crown  1 


2  Intelligence 


5  Justice 


Wisdom  2 


Love  4 


Beauty  6 


Foundation  9 


Firmness  7 


Kingdom  10 

Fig.   2.     THE    CABALISTIC    TREE. 

i 

nephesh)  ;  and  the  third,  representing  power  and 
Stability,  is  called  the  "material  world"    (olam 

71 


THE   CABALA 


mutba  or  olam  ha-teba) . 

As  concerns  the  cabalistic  tree  (the  ildn  ha-ca- 


Crown  1 


Kingdom  10 
Fig.   3.    THE  PILLAR  ARRANGEMENT. 

bala),  the  Sephiroth  are  so  arranged  that  the  first 
triad  is  placed  above,  the  second  and  third  are 

72 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

placed  below,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  three 
masculine  Sephiroth  are  on  the  right,  the  three 
feminine  on  the  left,  whilst  the  four  uniting 
Sephiroth  occupy  the  center,  as  shown  in  Fig  2. 

According  to  another  arrangement  the  Seph- 
iroth are  so  ordered  that  they  form  three  pillars, 
a  right  one  {sitra  dimina,  also  amuda  de-chesed, 
i.  e.,  the  pillar  of  mercy)  ;  a  left  one  {sitra  dis- 
mola,  also  amuda  de-dina,  i.  e.,  the  pillar  of  judg- 
ment), and  a  middle  one  {amuda  de-emza'ita) .  In 
the  right  pillar  to  which  belong  the  Sephiroth 
Wisdom,  Love  and  Firmness,  is  life;  in  the  left 
with  the  Sephiroth  Intelligence,  Judgment,  Splen- 
dor, is  Death.  The  middle  pillar  comprises 
Crown,  Beauty,  Foundation.  The  basis  of  all 
three  pillars  is  the  Kingdom.  Fig.  3  illustrates 
this. 

So  far  as  the  Sephiroth  represent  the  first  man- 
ifestation of  God  they  form  a  world  for  them- 
selves, an  ideal  world  which  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  real,  material  world.  As  such  it  is  now 
called  the  primordial,  the  Archetypal  Man 
(Adam  Kadmon),  now  the  Heavenly  Man 
{Adam  Hat).  As  for  the  Adam  Kadmon,  dif- 
ferent views  exist  in  the  cabalistic  writings.  He 
is  sometimes  taken  as  the  totality  of  the  Seph- 
iroth, and  he  appears  as  a  pre-Sephirotic  first 
emanation  and  superior  to  them,  by  which  God 
manifested  himself  as  creator  and  ruler  of  the 


73 


THE   CABALA 

world,  as  it  were  a  prototype  (macrocosm)  of 
the  entire  creation.  In  this  case  it  would  seem  as 
if  the  Adam  Kadmon  were  a  first  manifestation, 
inserted  between  God  and  the  world,  so  to  say  a 
second  God5  or  the  divine  Word.6 

According  to  a  later  theorem  four  worlds  pro- 
ceed by  an  emanation  in  different  gradations. 
This  is  expressed  by  Ibn  Latif  thus :  As  the 
point  extends  and  thickens  into  a  line,  the  line 
into  the  plane,  the  plane  into  the  expanded  body, 
thus  God's  self-manifestation  unfolds  itself  in 
the  different  worlds. 

In  each  of  these  four  worlds  the  ten  Sephiroth 
recur.  The  first  Sephirah  gave  birth  to  the  Olam 
azila  or  "world  of  emanation,"  containing  the 
powers  of  the  divine  plan  of  the  world.  Its  be- 
ings have  the  same  nature  as  that  belonging  to 
the  world  of  the  Sephiroth  or  to  the  Adam  Kad- 
mon. This  world  which  is  also  called  the  olam 
ha-sephiroth,  i.  e.,  "the  world  of  the  Sephiroth," 
is  the  seat  of  the  Shechinah.  From  the  olam 
azila  proceeded  the  olam  beria  or  "world  of  cre- 
ation," in  which  according  to  Rabbi  Isaac  Nasir7 
are  the  souls  of  the  saints,  all  the  blessings,  the 

6  devrepos  debs. 
6  X670S. 

7  He  flourished  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury and  is  the  author  of  a  treatise  on  the  Emanations 
(Massecheth  Aziluth)  reprinted  by  Jellinek  in  his 
Auswahl  Kabbalistischer  Mystik,  Part  I.  Leipsic,  1853. 

74 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

throne  of  the  Deity,  and  the  palaces  of  all  spirit- 
ual and  moral  perfection.  The  olam  beria  gave 
birth  to  the  olam  jezirah  or  "world  of  forma- 
tion," in  which  dwell  the  holy  angels,  whose 
prince  is  Metatron.8  But  there  are  also  the  de- 
mons, which  on  account  of  their  grossly  sensual 
nature  are  called  Keliphoth,  "shells,"  and  inhabit 
the  planets  and  other  heavenly  bodies  or  the 
realm  of  the  ether. 

The  fourth  world  is  called  olam  assiya,  the 
"world  of  action."  Its  substances  consist  of  mat- 
ter limited  by  space  and  perceptible  to  the  senses 
in  a  multiplicity  of  forms.  It  is  subject  to  con- 
stant changes,  generations,  and  corruptions,  and 
is  the  abode  of  the  Evil  Spirit. 

Like  the  Talmud  and  the  Midrash,  the  Zohar 
represents  the  optimistic  view,  that  the  present 
world  is  the  best.  Thus  we  read  (Zohar,  III, 
292b :  "There  were  old  worlds,  which  perished 
as  soon  as  they  came  into  existence;  they  were 
formless,  and  were  called  sparks.    Thus  the  smith 

8  Graetz,  Gnosticismus  und  Judentum,  1846,  p.  44,  de- 
rives the  word  from  Atera  Opovov,  because  this  angel  is 
immediately  under  the  divine  throne.  Cassel  (Ersch 
and  Gruber's  Encyklop'ddie,  section  II,  vol.  XXVII,  s.  v. 
"Juden,"  p  .40,  note  84)  derives  it  from  metator,  i.  e., 
"messenger,  outrider,  pathfinder."  Wunsche  also  con- 
nects it  with  ticT&rwp.  According  to  the  Zohar,  I,  126&, 
Metatron  is  the  first  creature  of  God ;  the  middle  pillar 
(in  the  essence  of  God)  or  the  uniting  link  in  the 
midst,  comprising  all  grades,  from  top  downwards,  and 
from  the  bottom  upwards  (ibid..  Ill,  127a)  ;  the  visibly 
manifested  Deity  (ibid.,  Ill,  231a). 

75 


THE    CABALA 

when  hammering  the  iron,  lets  the  sparks  fly  in 
all  directions.  These  sparks  are  the  primordial 
worlds,  which  could  not  continue,  because  the 
Sacred  Aged  had  not  as  yet  assumed  his  form 
(of  opposite  sexes — the  King  and  Queen),  and 
the  Master  was  not  yet  at  his  work."  And  again 
we  read  (III,  61&)  :  "The  Holy  One,  blessed  be 
he,  created  and  destroyed  several  worlds  before 
the  present  one  was  made,  and  when  this  last 
work  was  nigh  completed,  all  the  things  of  this 
world,  all  the  creatures  of  the  universe,  in  what- 
ever age  they  were  to  exist,  before  they  entered 
into  this  world,  were  present  before  God  in  their 
true  form.  Thus  are  the  words  of  Ecclesiastes 
to  be  understood.  'The  thing  that  hath  been,  it 
is  that  which  shall  be;  and  that  which  is  done  is 
that  which  shall  be  done.'  " 

Since  the  Cabalists  viewed  all  things  from  the 
anthropological  point  of  view,  they  also  trans- 
formed to  the  world  of  the  Sephiroth  the  differ- 
ence of  sex.  The  male  principle,  called  Abba,  is 
white  and  of  an  active  nature,  appearing  espe- 
cially in  the  Sephirah  Love,  but  also  at  the  bottom 
of  the  three  Sephiroth  on  the  right  side.  The 
female  principle,  on  the  other  hand,  which  owes 
its  origin  to  the  male  principle,  is  red  and  of  a 
receptive  nature.  It  is  mainly  visible  in  the 
Sephira  Justice,  but  is  also  at  the  bottom  of  the 
three  Sephiroth  on  the  left.    The  sign  of  the  male 

76 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

principle  is  the  "Y,"  that  of  the  female  the  "H" 
in  the  divine  name  YHVH.  What  we  learn  is 
this:  the  Sephiroth  teach  that  everything  which 
exists  is  imperishable  and  like  God.  As  nothing 
perishes  in  the  world  or  is  fully  annihilated,  thus 
the  stamp  and  seal  of  divinity  is  stamped  on  all 
beings.  God  as  the  Invisible  and  Endless  (En 
Soph)  became  visible  and  intelligible  by  the 
Sephiroth ;  the  human  mind  can  come  to  him,  can 
know  and  conceive  him. 

The  Realm  of  Evil. — Besides  the  heavenly 
realm  of  the  Sephiroth  of  light  or  of  the  good, 
there  is  also  a  realm  of  the  Sephiroth  of  dark- 
ness or  of  evil.  Over  against  the  supreme  ema- 
nation of  light,  the  Adam  Kadmon,  stands  as  op- 
ponent the  Adam  Belial.  The  same  is  the  case 
with  every  light-sephirah,  it  is  opposed  by  a 
Sephirah  of  darkness.  Thus  both  are  related  to 
one  another  as  the  right  side  to  the  left ;  the  light- 
Sephiroth  form  the  right  side,  the  darkness- 
Sephiroth  the  left  side  (sitra  achra).  The  realm 
of  darkness  is  figuratively  called  also  the  king- 
dom of  Cain,  Esau  and  Pharaoh  (Zohar,  I,  55a). 
Like  the  kingdom  of  light  that  of  darkness  has 
ten  degrees.  As  the  kingdom  of  light  is  inhabited 
by  good  spirits,  so  the  kingdom  of  darkness  is  in- 
habited by  evil  spirits  (demons,  shells).  Their 
prince  is  called  Samael   (angel  of  poison  or  of 


77 


THE   CABALA 

death)  ;  his  wife  is  called  the  Harlot  or  the 
Woman  of  Whoredom.  Both  are  thought  of  as 
having  intercourse  with  each  other  just  as  in  the 
realm  of  light  God  as  king  has  intercourse  with 
Malchuth  as  queen.  Through  the  influence  of 
the  evil  powers  the  creation  is  continually  dis- 
turbed. Men  are  seduced  to  apostasy  from  God, 
and  thus  the  kingdom  of  the  evil  grows  and  the 
Keliphoth  or  shells  increase.  In  the  figurative 
language  of  the  Zohar  this  disturbance  of  the 
creation  is  described  as  if  the  king  and  queen 
kept  aloof  from  each  other  and  could  not  work 
together  for  the  welfare  of  the  world.  But  this 
discord  is  finally  harmonized  by  repentance,  self- 
mortification,  prayer  and  strict  observance  of  the 
prescribed  ceremonies,  and  the  original  harmony 
of  things  is  again  restored.  It  must  be  observed 
however  that  the  teaching  about  the  opposition  of 
the  two  kingdoms  belongs  to  the  later  doctrines 
of  the  Cabala  and  its  development  belongs  to  the 
thirteenth  century. 

Closely  connected  with  the  doctrine  about  evil 
is  that  of  the  Messiah.  His  coming  takes  place 
when  the  kingdom  of  the  Keliphoth  is  overcome 
through  the  pious  and  virtuous  life  of  men  here 
on  earth ;  then  also  takes  place  the  restoration  of 
the  original  state  of  affairs  (tikkun).  Since  un- 
der his  rule  everything  turns  to  the  divine  light, 
all  idolatry  ceases,  because    the    Keliphoth    no 

78 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

longer  seduce  men  to  apostasy.  Cabala  as  mis- 
tress, rules  then  over  the  slave  philosophy.  In 
the  upper  world,  too,  great  changes  take  place  at 
the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  The  king  again  has 
intercourse  with  the  queen.  Through  their  cop- 
ulation the  divinity  regains  the  destroyed  unity. 
But  Wunsche  says  that  cabalistic  literature, 
especially  the  Zohar,  often  describes  this  union 
of  the  king  and  the  queen  in  terms  bordering  on 
shamelessness  and  shocking  to  decency  and 
morals. 

The  whole  universe,  however,  was  not  com- 
plete, and  did  not  receive  its  finishing  stroke  till 
man  was  formed,  who  is  the  acme  of  creation, 
and  the  microcosm  uniting  in  himself  the  totality 
of  beings.9  The  lower  man  is  a  type  of  the  heav- 
enly Adam  Kadmon.10  Man  consists  of  body  and 
soul.  Though  the  body  is  only  the  raimant  or 
the  covering  of  the  soul,  yet  it  represents  the 
Merkaba  (the  heavenly  throne-chariot).  All 
members  have  their  symbolic  meaning.  Greater 
than  the  body  is  the  soul,  because  it  emanates 
from  the  En  Soph  and  has  the  power  to  influence 
the  intelligible  world  by  means  of  channels  (sin- 
noroth)  and  to  bring  blessings  upon  the  nether 
world.  The  soul  is  called  nephesh,  "life,"  ruach, 
"soul,"  and    neshama,    "spirit."      As    ncshama, 

•Zohar,  III,  48a. 
19  Zohar,  II,  70/;. 

79 


THE   CABALA 

which  is  the  highest  degree  of  being,  it  has  the 
power  to  come  into  connection  with  God  and  the 
realm  of  light ;  as  ruach  it  is  the  seat  of  good  and 
evil ;  as  nephcsh  it  is  immediately  connected  with 
the  body  and  is  the  direct  cause  of  its  lower  func- 
tions, instincts,  and  animal  life. 

Psychology. — Like  Plato,  Origen,  etc.,  the 
Cabala  teaches  a  pre-existence  of  the  soul.11  All 
souls  destined  to  enter  into  human  bodies  existed 
from  the  beginning.  Clad  in  a  spiritual  garb 
they  dwell  in  their  heavenly  abode  and  enjoy  the 
view  of  the  divine  splendor  of  the  Shechinah. 
With  great  reluctance  the  soul  enters  into  the 
body,  for  as  Zohar,  II,  96b,  tells  us,  the  soul,  be- 
fore assuming  a  human  body,  addresses  God: 
"Lord  of  the  Universe !  Happy  am  I  in  this  world, 
and  do  not  wish  to  go  into  another  where  I  shall 
be  a  bondmaid,  and  be  exposed  to  all  kinds  of 
pollutions."  Llere,  too,  we  notice  again  the  in- 
fluence of  Platonic  and  Philonian  doctrines.  In 
its  original  state  each  soul  is  androgynous,  and  is 
separated  into  male  and  female  when  it  descends 
on  earth  to  be  born  in  a  human  body.  At  the 
time  of  marriage  both  parts  are  united  again  as 
they  were  before,  and  again  constitute  one  sou! 

"Compare  Book  of  Wisdom,  VIII,  20;  Josephus, 
Bell.  Jud.,  II,  12,  speaks  of  the  Essenes  as  believing  in 
a  pre-existence  of  the  soul.  Philo's  views  are  given  in 
his  De  somniis,  I,  642;  De  gigaiitibus,  I,  263  f. 

80 


ITS  DOCTRTNES 

(Zohar,  I,  9lb).  This  doctrine  reminds  us  of 
Plato  and  Philo  no  less  than  that  other  (viz.  of 
<W/xi'?7<m)  that  the  soul  carries  her  knowledge 
with  her  to  the  earth,  so  that  "every  thing  which 
she  learns  here  below  she  knew  already,  before 
she  entered  into  this  world"  (Zohar,  III,  61b), 
Of  great  interest  is  the  metempsychosis  of  the 
Cabala.  How  this  doctrine,  already  espoused  by 
the  Egyptians,  Pythagoreans  and  Plato,  came  into 
Jewish  mysticism,  is  not  yet  fully  explained.12 
But  it  is  interesting  to  learn  of  the  destiny  of  man 
and  the  universe  according  to  the  Cabalists. 

It  is  an  absolute  condition  of  the  soul  to  return 
to  the  Infinite  Source  from  which  it  emanated, 
after  developing  on  earth  the  perfections,  the 
germs  of  which  are  implanted  in  it.  If  the  soul, 
after  assuming  a  human  body,  fails  during  its 
first  sojourn  on  earth  to  acquire  that  experience 
for  which  it  descends  from  heaven,  and  becomes 
contaminated  by  sin,  it  must  re-inhabit  a  body 
again  and  again,  till  it  is  able  to  ascend  in  a  pur- 
ified state.  This  transmigration  or  gilgul,  how- 
ever, is  restricted  to  three  times.  "And  if  two 
souls  in  their  third  residence  in  human  bodies  are 
still  too  weak  to  resist  all  earthly  trammels  and  to 

"According  to  Josephus  (Antiq.,  XVIII,  13;  Bell. 
Jud.,  II,  8,  14)  it  would  seem  as  if  the  Pharisees  held 
the  doctrine  of  the  metempsychosis,  but  see  Schurer, 
Geschichte  des  judischen  Volkes,  vol.  II  (3d  ed.,  1898) 
p.  391;  on  Philo's  view,  see  ibid.,  vol.  Ill,  p.  561. 

81 


THE    CABALA 

acquire  the  necessary  experience,  they  are  both 
united  and  sent  into  one  body,  so  that  they  may 
be  able  conjointly  to  learn  that  which  they  were 
too  feeble  to  do  separately.  It  sometimes  happens,, 
however,  that  it  is  the  singleness  and  isolation  of 
the  soul  which  is  the  source  of  the  weakness,  and 
it  requires  help  to  pass  through  its  probation.  In 
that  case  it  chooses  for  a  companion  a  soul  which 
has  more  strength  and  better  fortune.  The 
stronger  of  the  two  then  becomes  as  it  were  the 
mother ;  she  carries  the  sickly  one  in  her  bosom, 
and  nurses  her  from  her  own  substance,  just  as 
a  woman  nurses  her  child.  Such  an  association  is 
therefore  called  pregnancy  (ibbur),  because  the 
stronger  soul  gives  as  it  were  life  and  substance 
to  the  weaker  companion." 

This  doctrine  of  the  Superfoetatio  was  espe- 
cially taught  by  Isaac  Loria  or  Luria.  It  is  obvi- 
ous that  this  doctrine  of  the  Ibbur  naturally  led 
to  wild  superstition  and  fraudulent  thaumaturgy. 
Loria  himself  claimed  to  have  the  soul  of  the 
Messiah  ben  Joseph.  Connected  with  Loria's 
system  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Kawana,  by  which 
is  meant  the  absorbed  state  of  the  soul  in  its  di- 
rection towards  God  when  performing  the  cere- 
monies, in  prayer,  self-mortification,  in  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  divine  name  and  reading  of  the 
Zohar,  whereby  the  bounds  are  broken  and  the 
fulness  of  blessing    from    the    upper    world    is 

82 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

brought  down  upon  the  lower. 

The  world,  being  an  expansion  of  the  Deity's 
own  substance,  must  also  share  ultimately  that 
blessedness  which  it  enjoyed  in  its  first  evolution. 
Even  Satan  himself,  the  archangel  of  wickedness, 
will  be  restored  to  his  angelic  nature,  since  he, 
too,  proceeded  from  the  Infinite  Source  of  all 
things.  When  the  last  human  soul  has  passed 
through  probation,  then  the  Messiah  will  appear 
and  the  great  jubilee  year  will  commence,  when 
the  whole  pleroma  of  souls  (otzar  ha-nesha- 
moth),  cleansed  and  purified  shall  return  to  the 
bosom  of  the  Infinite  Source  and  rest  in  the  "Pal- 
ace of  Love"  (Zohar,  II,  97a). 

Mystic  Interpretation. — The  exegetical  in- 
genuity of  the  Cabala  is  interesting  to  the  theo- 
logian. The  principle  of  the  mystic  interpreta- 
tion is  universal  and  not  peculiar  to  one  or  an- 
other school,  as  every  one  will  perceive  in  eccle- 
siastical history,  and  even  in  the  history  of  Greek 
literature.  We  find  it  in  Philo,  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, in  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  in  the  Tal- 
mud, and  in  the  Zohar ;  and  the  more  such  an  in- 
terpretation departed  from  the  spirit  of  the  sacred 
text,  the  more  necessary  was  it  to  bring  the  scrip- 
tures to  its  support  by  distortions  of  their  mean- 
ings.13 

13  For  a  strange  interpretation  of  scripture  in  modern 
times,  the   reader   is   referred   to   Canon    Wordsworth's 
83 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

Passing  over  all  manner  of  subtleties  of  the 
pre-Zoharic  times,  we  will  consider  the  masterly 
performances  of  the  Cabalists.  According  to 
them  the  letters,  words  and  names  of  the  scrip- 
tures contain  divine  mysteries  of  wondrous,  mys- 
tical thoughts  and  ideas,  of  significant  symbols 
and  riddles,  on  which  depends  the  continuance 
of  the  world.  (Zohar,  II,  99a).  "Is  it  conceiv- 
able," the  Zohar  makes  one  of  Simon  ben  Jochai's 
circle  exclaim,  "that  God  had  no  holier  matters 
to  communicate  than  these  common  things  about 
Esau  and  Hagar,  Laban  and  Jacob,  Balaam's  ass, 
Balak's  jealousy  of  Israel,  and  Zimri's  lewdness? 
Does  a  collection  of  such  tales,  taken  in  their  or- 
dinary sense,  deserve  the  name  of  Torah?  And 
can  it  be  said  of  such  a  revelation  that  it  utters 
the  pure  truth?  If  that  is  all  the  Torah  contains, 
we  can  produce  in  our  time  a  book  as  good  as 
this,  aye,  perhaps  better.  No,  no!  the  higher, 
mystical  sense  of  the  Torah  is  its  true  sense.  The 
biblical  narratives  resemble  a  beautiful  dress 
which  enraptures  fools  so  that  they  do  not  look 
beneath  it.  This  robe,  however,  covers  a  body, 
i.  e.,  the  precepts  of  the  Law,  and  this  again  a 
soul,  the  higher  soul.  Woe  to  the  guilty,  who  as- 
sert that  the  Torah  contains  only  simple  stories, 
and  therefore  look  only  upon  the  dress.  Blessed 
are  the  righteous,  who  seek  the  real  sense  of  the 

Commentary    on    Genesis   and   Exodus,   London,    1864, 
p.  52. 

84 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

Law.  The  jar  is  not  the  wine,  so  stories  do  not 
make  up  the  Torah"  (ibid.,  Ill,  152a).  Thus 
the  Cabalists  attached  little  importance  to  the  lit- 
eral sense;  yet  not  a  single  iota  was  to  be  taken 
from  it  and  nothing  was  to  be  added  to  it  (ibid.j 
II,  99). 

In  order  to  elicit  the  mysteries  from  the  scrip- 
tures, the  Cabalists  employed  certain  herme- 
neutical  canons,14  viz. : 

1.  Gematria,15  i.  e.,  the  art  of  discovering  the 
hidden  sense  of  the  text  by  means  of  the  nu- 
merical equivalents  of  the  letters.  Thus  from  the 
Hebrew  words  nB>?B>  rum  (vehineh  sheloshah) 
translated  "lo!  three  (men  stood  by  him)"  in 
Gen.  xviii,  2,  it  is  deduced  that  these  three  were 
the  angels  Michael,  Gabriel  and  Raphael,  because 
the  letters  yield  the  numerical  value  of  701,  viz, 

V=6+  ,1  =  5+  :  =50+  n  =  5  +  E  =  3°o+  ?=  3°+E  = 
300 -j-n  =5  =  701  ;  and  the  same  number  yield  the 
words  7KD11  'wnM  '1X2*12  VW,  viz.  X  =  i-f '?  —  3°~h 
1=6+73—404.  1  —  io+d  =  2o+n=i  +  '-5  =30-1-  ;  = 

3  +  D=2-fn  =  20o-j-^-io-fX  =  i-fb=3°4-1=6 
+ 1  =  200  -f.  2  =  80  -j-  x  =  1  +  '■>  =  30  =  70 1 . 

A  like  figuring  we  find  in  the  Epistle  of  Bar- 
nabas, ch,  ix,  with  reference  to  the  318  servants 

14  On  the  interpretation  of  the  scriptures  among  the 
Jews  in  general,  see  my  article  s.  v.  "Scripture,  Inter- 
pretation of,  Jewish,"  in  McClintock  and  Strong. 

15  The  word  is  not  like  yeufxerpia,  as  Levy,  Neuhebr. 
tVorterbuch,  I,  324,  thinks,  but  is  derived  from  ypafi- 

fiarela  or  ypa/i/ma. 

85 


THE   CABALA 

of  Abraham,  mentioned  in  Gen.  xiv.  14.  The 
author  lays  stress  upon  the  fact  that  in  the  He- 
brew the  "eighteen"  are  mentioned  first,  and  the 
"three  hundred"  afterwards.  In  the  eighteen  ex- 
pressed by  the  Greek  letters  I  =  10  and  H  =  8 
he  sees  Jesus  (IH50Y5),  and  in  the  three  hun- 
dred he  sees  by  the  letter  T  —  300,  the  cross. 

With  this  canon  may  be  compared  the  "num- 
ber-oracle," by  means  of  which  one  can  tell  from 
the  number  of  the  letters  of  the  name  and  the 
dates  of  the  birth  important  years  and  days  in  the 
life  of  a  man.  Thus,  for  instance,  Emperor  Wil- 
liam I,  was  born  March  22,  1797 ;  3  +  22  +  1797 
+  7  (number  of  the  letters  of  the  name=  1829, 
the  year  of  marriage ;  1829  +1+8  +  2  +  9  = 
1849,  campaign  to  Baden ;  1849  +  1  +  8  +  4  + 
9=  1871,  coronation  as  emperor;  1871  +  1  +8 
+  7  +  1  =  1888,  year  of  death.  Napoleon  III, 
born  4,  20,  1808;  4  +  20+1808  +  8  (number 
of  the  letters  of  the  name)  =  1840,  the  coup  at 
Boulogne ;  1840+1+8  +  4  +  0=  1853,  first 
year  as  emperor ;  1853  +  1+8  +  5  +  3  = 
1870;  end  of  his  rule.16 

2.  Notarikon  (from  the  Latin  notarius,  a 
short-hand  writer,  one  who  among  the  Romans 
belonged  to  that  class  of  writers  who  abbreviated 
and  used  single  letters  to  signify  whole  words), 

16  For  a  somewhat  different  mode  compare  The  Open 
Court,  Feb.  1909,  p.  88. 

86 


ITS  DOCTRINES 

is  employed  when  every  letter  of  a  word  is  taken 
as  an  initial  or  abbreviation  of  a  wrord.  Thus, 
for  instance,  every  letter  of  the  Hebrew  first 
word  in  Genesis,17  is  made  the  initial  of  a  word, 
and  from  "in  the  beginning"  we  obtain  "in  the 
beginning  God  saw  that  Israel  should  accept  the 
law";  or  the  word  "Adam"  (ADM)  is  made 
"Adam,  David,  Messiah."  Sometimes  very 
curious  and  ingenious  combinations  are  derived 
from  this  system.  For  instance  the  word  passim19 
used  in  the  passage  "And  he  made  a  coat  of 
(passim)  many  colors"  (Gen.  xxxvii.  3)  is  made 
to  indicate  the  misfortunes  which  Joseph  ex- 
perienced in  being  sold  by  his  brethren  to  Pot- 
iphar,  Merchants,  Ishmaelites,  Midianites.19 

It  appears  that  the  Christian  fathers  sometimes 
made  use  of  the  same  rule ;  as  for  instance  Christ 
has  been  called  by  them  IX0Y2,  "fish,"  because 
these  letters  are  the  initials  of  the  Greek  words 
"Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour."20 
Thus  St.  Augustine  tells  us  {Be  civ.  Dei,  XVIII, 
23)  that  when  they  were  speaking  about  Christ, 
Flaccianus,  a  very  famous  man,  of  most  ready 
eloquence,  and  much  learning,  produced  a  Greek 
manuscript,  saying  that  it  was  the  prophecies  of 

17  rrwna 

19D=Potiphar,  D=Sochrim  (merchants),  ^Ishmaelites, 
E= Midianites. 

20  'lrjaovs  Xpiaros,  Qeov  Ttos,  wwr^p. 

87 


THE   CABALA 

the  Erythrian  sibyl.  In  this  he  pointed  out  a  cer- 
tain passage  that  had  the  initial  letters  of  the 
lines  so  arranged  that  those  words  could  be  read 
in  them.  Then  he  went  on  and  gave  these  verses, 
of  which  the  initial  letters  yield  that  meaning,  and 
says,  "But  if  you  join  the  initial  letters  of  these 
five  Greek  words,  they  will  make  the  word 
ichthus,21  that  is  'fish,'  in  which  word  Christ  is 
mystically  understood,  because  he  was  able  to  live, 
that  is,  to  exist,  without  sin  in  the  abyss  of  this 
mortality  as  in  the  depth  of  waters."  It  is  worthy 
of  notice  that  Augustine  only  gives  twenty-seven 
lines22  of  the  thirty-four,  as  contained  in  the 
Oracula  Sibyllina,  VIII,  217  ff.,  where  the  acros- 
tic reads:  Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God  (the)  Sav- 
iour, (the)  Cross.23  In  its  full  form  it  is  also 
given  by  Eusebius  in  the  Life  of  the  Blessed  Em- 
peror Constantine.  For  the  benefit  of  the  reader 
we  subjoin  Neale's  translation  of  the  acrostic  as 
given  in  the  Christian  Remembrancer,  October, 
1861,  p.  287: 

"Judgment  at  hand,  the  earth  shall  sweat  with 

fear. 
Eternal  king,  the  Judge  shall  come  on  high; 
Shall  doom  all  flesh;  shall  bid  the  world  appear 

21  ixM*. 

"English  translation  by  M.  Dodd,  City  of  God,  Edin- 
burgh, 1871,  where  the  Greek  letters  at  the  beginning  of  ; 
the  lines  are  retained. 

23  aravpos. 


MYSTIC  INTERPRETATION 

Unveiled  before  his  Throne.     Him  every  eye 
Shall,  just  or  unjust,  see  in  majesty. 

"Consummate  time  shall  view  the  Saints  assemble 
His  own  assessors,  and  the  souls  of  men 
Round  the  great  judgment  seat  shall  wait  and 

tremble 
In  fear  of  sentence,  and  the  green  earth  then 
Shall  turn  to  desert.    They  that  see  that  day 
To  moles  and  bats  their  gods  shall  cast  away. 

"Sea,  earth,  and  heaven,  and  hell's  dread  gates 

shall  burn; 
Obedient  to  their  call,  the  dead  return; 
Nor  shall  the  judge  unfitting  doom  discern. 

"Of  chains  and  darkness  to  each  wicked  soul : 
For  them  that  have  been  good,  the  starry  pole. 

"Gnashing  of  teeth,  and  woe,  and  fierce  despair 
Of  such  as  hear  the  righteous  Judge  declare 
Deeds  long  forgot,  which  that  last  day  shall  bare. 

"Then  when  each  darkened  breast  He  brings  to 

sight, 
Heaven's  stars  shall  fall,  and  day  be  changed  to 

night ; 
Effaced  the  sun-ray,  and  the  moon's  pale  light. 


89 


THE    CABALA 

"Surely  the  valleys  He  on  high  shall  raise; 

All  hills  shall  cease,  all  mountains  turn  to  plain; 

Vessels  shall  no  more  pass  the  watery  ways ; 

In  the  dread  lightning  parching  earth  shall  blaze, 

Ogygian  rivers  seek  to  flow  in  vain. 

Unutterable  woe  the  trumpet  blast, 

Re-echoing  through  the  ether,  shall  forecast. 

"Then  Tartarus  shall  wrap  the  world  in  gloom, 
High  chiefs  and  princes  shall  receive  their  doom, 
Eternal  fire  and  brimstone  for  their  tomb. 

"Crown  of   the   world,   sweet  wood,   salvation's 

horn, 
Rearing  its  beauty,  shall  for  man  be  born, 
O  wood,  that  Saints  adore,  and  sinners  scorn! 
So  from    twelve    fountains    shall    its    light    be 

poured ; 
Staff  of  the  Shepherd,  and  victorious  sword." 

We  may  also  state  that  words  of  those  verses 
which  are  regarded  as  containing  a  peculiar  re- 
condite meaning  are  ranged  in  squares  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  be  read  either  vertically  or  boustro- 
phedonally  beginning  at  the  right  or  left  hand. 
Again  the  words  of  several  verses  are  placed  over 
each  other,  and  the  letters  which  stand  under  each 
other  are  formed  into  new  words.  This  is 
especially  seen  in  the  treatment  of  three  verses  in 


90 


MYSTIC  INTERPRETATION 

Exod.  xiv.  19-21  (each  containing  72  letters), 
which  are  believed  to  contain  the  three  Pillars  of 
the  Sephiroth  and  the  Divine  Name  of  seventy- 
two  words.  Now,  if  these  three  verses  be  writ- 
ten out  one  above  the  other,  the  first  from  right 
to  left,  the  second  from  left  to  right,  and  the 
third  from  right  to  left,  they  will  give  12  col- 
umns of  three  letters  each.  Then  each  column 
will  be  a  word  of  three  letters,  and  as  there  are 
72  columns,  there  will  be  72  words  of  three  let- 
ters, each  of  which  will  be  the  72  names  of  the 
Deity.  By  writing  the  verses  all  from  right  to 
left,  instead  of  boustrophedonally,  there  will  be 
other  sets  of  72  names  obtainable.  The  reader 
who  is  interested  in  these  niceties  will  find  ample 
information  in  Bartolocci,  Bibliotheca  Magna 
Rabbinicia,  IV,  pp.  230  ff. 

3.  Temurah  or  permutation. — According  to 
certain  rules,  one  letter  is  substituted  for  another 
letter  preceding  or  following  it  in  the  alphabet, 
and  thus  from  one  word  another  word  of  totally 
different  orthography  may  be  formed.  Thus  the 
alphabet  is  bent  exactly  in  the  middle,  and  one 
half  is  put  over  the  other;  and  then  by  changing 
alternately  the  first  letter  or  the  first  two  letters 
at  the  beginning  of  the  second  line,  twenty-two 
permutations  are  produced.  These  are  called  the 
"Table  of  the  Combinations  of  Tziruph." 

For  example's  sake  we  give  the  method  called 
Albath,  thus : 

91 


THE   CABALA 

A     B     G     D     H     V    Z     Ch     T    Y    K 
L     Th  Sh  R     Q     Tz  P     Ay  S     N     M 
The  method  abgath  is  thus  exemplified: 

A     G     D     H     V     Z     Ch  T     Y    K    L 
B     Th  Sh  R    Q     Tz  P    Ay  S     N     M 

The  names  of  the  twenty-two  permutations 
are:  Albath,  Abgath,  Agdath,  Adbag,  Ahbad, 
Avba,  Azbav,  Achbaz,  Atbach,  Aibat,  Achbi,  Al- 
bach,  Ambal,  Anbam,  Asban,  Aaybas,  Afba,  Az- 
baf,  Akbaz,  Arbak,  Ashbar,  Athbash.  To  these 
must  be  added  as  (23)  Abgad;  (24)  Albam. 

I  will  only  remark  that  by  the  system  called 
Athbash,  it  is  found  that  the  word  Sheshhach  in 
Jer.  xxv.  26  is  the  same  as  Babel,  and  that  Jerome 
is  said  to  have  confidently  applied  this  system.24 

Besides  these  canons  the  Cabala  also  sees  a 
recondite  sense  in  the  form  of  the  letters,  as  well 
as  in  the  ornaments  which  adorn  them.  The 
more  multifarious  these  trifles,  the  easier  it  is  to 
arrive  in  every  given  case  at  a  result,  and  the  less 
wit  or  thought  is  required. 

Although  the  canons  mentioned  above  are  al- 
ready applied  in  the  Talmud  and  Midrash,  the 
Cabalists  made  a  more  copious  use  of  them.  The 
names  of  God  became  a  special  object  of  their 
fancy.  With  them  they  imagined  they  could  ac- 
complish everything  and  perform  miracles,  heal 

24Hottinger  possessed  an  entire  Pentateuch  ex- 
plained on  the  principle  of  Athbash. 

92 


MYSTIC  INTERPRETATION 

the  sick,  extinguish  the  fire,  etc.  The  most  mir- 
aculous effects  were  ascribed  to  the  Tetragram- 
maton.  Whoever  was  in  possession  of  the  true 
pronunciation  of  that  name  could  enter  in  rela- 
tion with  the  upper  world  and  receive  revela- 
tions. Each  letter  of  the  sacred  name  was  con- 
sidered as  something  mysterious.  The  letter  Y 
(of  YHVH)  referred  to  the  father  as  creator 
(abba)  and  H  to  the  mother  (imma).  Because 
the  letter  H  occurred  twice,  they  distinguished 
an  upper  and  a  lower  mother.  The  permutation 
of  the  letters  of  the  Tetragrammaton  brought 
about  a  multitude  of  new  divine  names  which, 
either  spoken  or  written,  influenced  the  course 
and  laws  of  nature.  As  was  the  case  with  the 
name  of  God  consisting  of  four  letters,  so  it  was 
with  that  consisting  of  twelve,  twenty-two,  for- 
ty-two and  seventy-two  letters.  All  were  believed 
to  contain  great  mysteries.25  The  names  of  an- 
gels were  treated  in  like  manner.  Thus  the  Ca- 
balists  greatly  misused  the  Old  Testament,  espe- 
cially the  Thora.  And,  as  says  Professor 
Wiinsche,  by  making  the  Bible  a  text-book  to 
elicit  deeper  ideas,  the  greatest  nonsense  and 
rubbish  came  to  light.  The  so-called  hidden  mys- 
teries and  revelations  were  nothing  but  fancies 
whirling  in  the  heads  of  the  Cabalists.    The  exe- 

25  Compare  what  we  stated  above  in  connection  with 
Abulafia. 

93 


THE   CABALA 

getical  literature  of  the  Cabala  clearly  proves  that 
its  representatives  had  completely  lost  the  sense 
for  a  suitable  understanding  of  the  words  of 
scripture.28 

26  A  somewhat  different  view  on  the  cabalistic  treat- 
ment of  scripture  is  given  by  the  late  Jewish  scholar 
Zunz  (died  1886)  in  his  Gottesdienstliche  Vortrdge 
(Berlin,  1832),  p.  403:  For  the  passage  in  English  see 
my  article  "Scripture  Interpretation"  in  McClintock  and 
Strong,  vol.  IX,  p.  480. 


94 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  CABALA  IN  RELATION  TO  JUDA- 
ISM AND  CHRISTIANITY. 

Judaism. — It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the 
Cabala  intended  to  oppose  philosophy  and  to  in- 
tensify religion.  But  by  introducing  heathenish 
ideas  it  grafted  on  Judaism  a  conception  of  the 
world  which  was  foreign  to  it  and  produced  the 
most  pernicious  results.  In  place  of  the  mono- 
theistic biblical  idea  of  God,  according  to  which 
God  is  the  creator,  preserver  and  ruler  of  the 
world,  the  confused,  pantheistically  colored 
heathenish  doctrine  of  emanation  was  substituted. 
The  belief  in  the  unity  of  God  was  replaced  by 
the  decade  of  the  ten  Sephiroth  which  were  con- 
sidered as  divine  substances.  By  no  longer  ad- 
dressing prayers  directly  to  god,  but  to  the  Seph- 
iroth, a  real  Sephiroth-cult  originated.  The  le- 
gal discussions  of  the  Talmud  were  of  no  ac- 
count; the  Cabalists  despised  the  Talmud,  yea, 
they  considered  it  as  a  canker  of  Judaism,  which 
must  be  cut  out  if  Judaism  were  to  recover.    Ac- 

95 


THE   CABALA 

cording  to  the  Zohar,  I,  27b;  III,  275a;  279fr, 
the  Talmud  is  only  a  bondmaid,  but  the  Cabala  a 
controlling  mistress. 

The  Cabalists  compared  the  Talmud  to  a  hard; 
unfruitful  rock,  which  when  smitten  yields  only 
scanty  drops  that  in  the  end  become  a  cause  of 
controversy;  whereas  the  study  of  the  Cabala  is 
like  a  fresh  gushing  spring,  which  one  needs  only 
to  address  to  cause  it  to  pour  out  its  refreshing 
contents.1 

And  as  the  Cabalists  treated  the  Talmud,  they 
likewise  treated  philosophy,  which  defined  relig- 
ious ideas  and  vindicated  religious  precepts  be- 
fore the  forum  of  reason.  Most  Cabalists  op- 
posed philosophy.  She  was  the  Hagar  that  must 
be  driven  from  the  house  of  Abraham,  whereas 
the  Cabala  was  the  Sarah,  the  real  mistress.  At 
the  time  of  the  Messiah  the  mistress  will  rule 
over  the  bondmaid. 

But  the  study  of  the  Bible  was  also  neglected, 
Scripture  was  no  longer  studied  for  its  own  sake, 
but  for  the  sake  of  finding  the  so-called  higher 
sense  by  means  of  mystical  hermeneutical  rules. 

Even  the  rituals  were  variously  changed  and 
recast.     The  putting  on  of  the  phylacteries  and 

1 A  collection  of  passages  abusing  the  Talmud  is 
given  by  Landauer  in  the  Orient,  1845,  pp.  571-574;  see 
also  Rubin,  Heidenthum  und  Kabbah,  Vienna,  1893,  pp. 
13  f. ;  also  his  Kabbala  und  Agada,  ibid.,  1895,  p.  5,  where 
we  read  that  according  to  Abulafia  the  Cabalists  only 
were  genuine  men,  and  the  Talmudists  monkeys. 

96 


JUDATSM 

prayer-mantle  (talith)  was  accompanied  by  the 
recitation  of  cabalistic  formulas  and  sentences ; 
special  prayers  were  also  addressed  to  the  Seph- 
iroth.  Connected  with  all  this  was  an  extrava- 
gant, intoxicating  superstition.  To  enable  the 
soul  to  connect  itself  with  the  realm  of  light  and 
its  spirits,  or  to  be  transplanted  after  death  into 
its  heavenly  abode,  one  underwent  all  manner  of 
austere  ascetical  exercises.  With  the  mysterious 
name  of  God  they  believed  themselves  enabled 
to  heal  the  sick,  to  deliver  demoniacs  and  to  ex- 
tinguish conflagrations.  By  application  of  the 
right  formulas  of  prayer,  man  was  to  have  power 
and  influence  on  both  the  kingdoms  of  light  and 
darkness.  When  the  Cabalist  prays,  God  shakes 
his  head,  changes  at  once  his  decrees,  and  abol- 
ishes heavy  judgments.  The  magical  names  of 
God  can  even  deliver  the  condemned  and  free 
them  from  their  torments  in  their  place  of  pun- 
ishment. In  this  respect  we  even  meet  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  Catholic  mass  for  the  souls.2 
The  Book  of  Psalms  with  its  songs  and  prayers 
was  especially  considered  as  a  means  of  produc- 
ing all  manner  of  miracles  and  magic,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  Sepher  Shimmush  Thehillim   (lit- 

2  Wiinsche,  whom  we  have  followed,  evidently  refers 
to  the  prayer  called  Kaddish,  for  which  see  my  article 
s.  v.  in  McClintock  and  Strong,  vol.  XII.  A  very  in- 
teresting article  on  "Judische  Seelenmesse  und  Totenan- 
rufung"  is  given  by  Dalman  in  Saat  auf  Hoffnung 
(Leipsic,  1890),  pp.  169-225. 

97 


THE    CABALA 

erally,  "the  Book  of  the  Cabalistic  Application  of 
the  Psalms"),  a  fragment  of  the  practical  Cabala, 
translated  by  Gottfried  Selig,  Berlin,  1788. 

This  sketch  of  Professor  Wunsche  is  by  no 
me^ans  exaggerated.3  Mutatis  mutandis  we  find 
the  cabalistic  notions  among  the  Chasidim,  a  sect 
founded  in  1740  by  a  certain  Rabbi  Israel  ben 
Eliezer  Baalshem,4  also  called  Besht.  Baal-Shem 
made  his  public  appearance  about  1740  in  Tlusti, 
in  the  district  of  Czartkow,  from  whence  he  sub- 
sequently removed  to  Medziboze,  in  Podolia.  The 
miraculous  cures  and  prophecies  attracted  atten- 
tion in  large  circles;  his  mode  of  life,  consisting 
of  contemplation,  study  of  the  Zohar  and  fre- 
quent washings  in  rivers,  soon  spread  a  halo 
around  him.  Added  to  this  were  the  many  mir- 
aculous reports  circulated  by  his  disciples;  for 
instance,  that  his  father  had  been  visited  by  the 
prophet  Elijah  to  predict  his  birth,  and  that  his 
mother  was  a  hundred  years  old  when  she  was 
delivered  of  him ;  that,  when  a  youth,  he  had  vic- 
toriously struggled  with  evil  spirits,  etc. — all  of 

3  Orelli  in  his  article  "Zauberei"  in  Realencyklopadie 
fur  protest.  Theologie  und  Kirche,  vol.  XXI,  1908,  p„ 
618,  remarks  :  "The  Jewish  Cabala  has  promoted  the 
magic  degeneration  of  the  religion •  to  a  great  extent 
it  furnished  profound  expressions  and  formulas  for 
the  exercise  of  superstitious  arts." 

4  "Lord  of  the  name"  ==  Oeovpyos,  a  man  who  by  words 
of  conjuration  and  other  formulas  knows  how  to  exer- 
cise a  power  over  the  visible  and  invisible  world. 

98 


JUDAISM 

which  may  be  found  in  the  Book  Shibche  ha- 
Besht,  published  in  1815  by  the  grandson  of  Baal- 
Shem,  Rabbi  Bar  Linz.  Baal-Shem5  and  his  sue* 
cessors  received  the  name  Tsaddik,  "Saint,"  and 
his  fame  attracted  multitudes  of  Jews  from  all 
parts  of  Poland,  who  submitted  themselves  to  his 
guidance.  As  long  as  he  lived,  the  sect  formed 
one  great  whole,  of  which  he  was  the  head.  Aft- 
er his  death,  which  took  place  in  1780,  it  was 
divided  into  separate  congregations,  each  of 
which  had  its  own  Rabbi  or  Tsaddik  or  Saint, 
unreserved  devotion  to  whom  is  the  most  import- 
ant of  all  the  principles  of  the  sect.  In  a  word, 
before  Pius  IX  was  declared  infallible,  the  Chas- 
idim6  already  had  their  infallible  popes,  whose 
number  is  still  very  large  in  Poland,  Wallachia, 
Moldavia,  Galicia,  and  Palestine.  Of  these  popes 
of  the  Chasidim,  a  modern  Jewish  writer,  the 
late  David  Cassel  (died  1893),  says:  "To  the 
disgrace  of  Judaism  and  modern  culture  the 
Tsaddikim  still  go  on  with  their  disgraceful  busi- 
ness, and  are  thus  the  most  essential  hindrances 
to  the  dissemination  of  literary  progress  in  Gal- 
icia  and  Russia.     There  are  still  thousands  who 

5  Compare  Kahana,  Rabbi  Israel  Baal  Schem-Tob, 
sein  Lcben,  kabbalistisches  System  und  VVirken,  Sitomir, 
1900. 

a  Compare  Perl,  Megalleh  temirin,  or  Die  enthullten 
Geheimnisse  der  Chassidim,  Lemberg,  1879;  Ch.  Bograt- 
schoff,  Entstehung,  Entwicklung  und  Prinsipien  des 
Chassidismus,  Berlin,  1908. 

99 


THE    CABALA 

behold  in  the  Tsaddik  the  worker  of  miracles,  the 
prophet,  one  who  is  in  close  communion  with 
God  and  angels,  and  who  present  him  with  rich 
gifts  and  promulgate  the  wonders  which  they 
have  seen.  Covetousness  on  the  one  hand  and 
spiritual  narrowness  on  the  other  are  the  chan- 
nels through  which  the  evil  is  fed  anew." 

Christianity. — As  soon  as  the  Cabala  became 
better  known,  Christians  betook  themselves  to  its 
study  and  paid  it  the  greatest  attention  because  of 
the  supposed  agreement  of  its  teachings  with  the 
dogmas  of  the  Christian  church.  It  was  thought 
that  the  Cabala  was  the  connecting  link  between 
Judaism  and  Christianity.  The  dogmas  of  the 
Trinity,  of  the  Messiah  as  the  Son  of  God  and 
his  atonement,  were  the  salient  points  which  espe- 
cially attracted  attention.  The  first  to  be  drawn 
to  the  Cabala  was  Raymond  Lully,  the  "Doctor 
Illuminatus"  (1236-1315).  He  regarded  the  Ca- 
bala as  a  divine  science  and  as  a  genuine  revela- 
tion whose  light  is  revealed  to  a  rational  soul. 

The  progress  of  Christianity  towards  the  Ca- 
bala was  greatly  helped  by  the  conversion  of  a 
large  number  of  Jews  to  Christianity,  "in  which 
they  recognized  a  closer  relation  to  their  gnostic 
views,  and  also  by  the  Christians  perceiving  that 
gnosticism  could  become  a  powerful  instrument 
for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews."     Among  the 

100 


CHRISTIANITY 

converted  Jews  we  notice  Paulus  de  Heredia  of 
Aragon  (about  1480),  author  of  Iggcret  ha-So~ 
dot  or  Epistola  Sccretorum,  treating  of  the  di- 
vinity, death,  and  resurrection  of  the  Messiah, 
which  has  been  ascribed  to  a  certain  Nechunjah 
ben-ha-Kanah,  who  lived  towards  the  end  of  the 
second  Temple.  Another  convert  was  Paul 
Ricci,7  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  friend  of 
Erasmus,  and  physician  to  the  Emperor  Max- 
imilian I ;  Julius  Conrad  Otto,  author  of  the  "Un- 
veiled Secrets,"  consisting  of  extracts  from  the 
Talmud  and  the  Zohar,  to  prove  the  validity  of 
the  Christian  doctrine  (Nuremberg,  1805)  ;  John 
Stephen  Rittengel,  grandson  of  the  celebrated 
Isaac  Abravanel,  the  translator  of  the  Book  Jez- 
irah  into  Latin  (Amsterdam,  1642).  Among 
Christians  we  may  mention  Count  John  Pico  di 
Mirandola  (born  in  1463),  author  of  LXXII 
conclusiones  cabbalisticae,  Rome,  1486;  more 
especially  John  Reuchlin  (Capnio),  1455-1522. 
Reuchlin,  the  first  German  scholar  who  studied 
the  Cabala,  wrote  two  cabalistic  treaties,  entitled 
De  Verbo  Mirifico  (Basel,  1494),  and  De  Arte 
cabbalistica  (Hagenau,  1516).8 

The  first  treatise  is  written  in  the  form  of  a 

7See  my  article  s.  v.  in  McClintock  arid  Strong. 

These  and  some  other  treatises  of  the  same  kind 
are  collected  by  Pistorius  in  a  collection  entitled  Artis 
cabbalisticae  scriptores,  Basel,  1587. 

101 


THE   CABALA 

dialogue  between  an  Epicurean  philosopher 
named  Sidonius,  a  Jew  named  Baruch,  and  the 
author,  who  is  introduced  by  the  Greek  name 
Capnio.  Capnio  would  have  it  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  is  to  be  found  in  the  first  verse  of 
Genesis.  He  submits,  if  the  Hebrew  word  bra 
(bara),  which  is  translated  "created,"  be  exam- 
ined, and  if  each  of  the  three  letters  composing 
this  word  be  taken  as  the  initial  of  a  separate 
word,  we  obtain  the  expression  ben,  ruach,  ab, 
i.  e.,  Son,  Spirit,  Father.  Upon  the  same  prin- 
ciple we  find  the  two  persons  of  the  Trinity  in  the 
word  abn  (eben),  "stone,"  occurring  in  Ps.  cxviiL 
22 — "the  stone  which  the  builders  rejected  is  be- 
come the  head  of  the  corner,"  by  dividing  the 
three  letters  composing  the  word  abn  into  ab  ben> 
i.  e.,  Father,  Son. 

The  second  treatise  is  also  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue  between  a  Mohammedan,  a  Pythagor- 
ean philosopher  and  a  Jew.  The  dialogue  is  held 
at  Frankfort  where  the  Jew  lives  to  whom  the 
others  come  to  be  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of 
the  Cabala.  The  whole  is  a  more  matured  expo- 
sition and  elaboration  of  the  ideas  hinted  at  in  the 
first  treatise. 

How  the  truths  of  Christianity  can  be  derived 
from  the  Talmud  and  the  Cabala,  the  Franciscan 
Pietro  Galatino  endeavored  to  prove  in  his  treat- 
ise De  Arcanis  Catholicae   Veritatis  contra   ob~ 


102 


CHRISTIANITY 

stinatissimam    Judaecorum    nostrae    tempestatis 
perfidiam  (Ortona  di  Mare,  1518). 

Much  as  Lully,  Mirandola,  Reuchlin,  and  oth- 
ers had  already  done  to  acquaint  the  Christian 
world  with  the  secrets  of  the  Cabala,  none  of 
these  scholars  had  given  translations  of  any  por- 
tions of  the  Zohar.  To  this  task  Knorr  Baron 
von  Rosenroth  betook  himself  by  publishing  the 
celebrated  work  Kabbala  Demidata  ("the  Cabala 
Unveiled"),  in  two  large  volumes,  the  first  of 
which  was  printed  in  Sulzbach,  1677-78,  the  sec- 
ond at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1864,  giving  a 
Latin  translation  of  the  Introduction  to  and  the 
following  portion  of  the  Sohar:  the  Book  of 
Mysteries;  the  Great  Assembly;  the  Small  As- 
sembly ;9  Joseph  Gikatilla's  Gate  of  Light  (shaar 
orah)  ;  Vital's  Doctrine  of  Metempsychosis  (ha- 
gilgidim),  and  the  Tree  of  Life  {etz  chayim)  ; 
Cordovero's  Garden  of  Pomegranates  (pardes 
rim-monim)  ;  Abraham  Herera's  Gate  of  Heaven 
(sha-ar  ha  shamayim)  ;  Naphtali  ben  Jacob's 
Valley  of  the  King  (emeq  ha  bacha)  ;  Naphtali 
Cohen's  Vision  of  the  Priest  {mare  Kohen)  etc., 
etc.,  with  elaborate  annotations,  glossaries  and  in- 
dices. Knorr  von  Rosenroth  has  also  collected 
all  the  passages  of  the  New  Testament  which 
contain  similar  doctrines  to  those  propounded  by 
the  Cabala.    In  spite  of  its  many  drawbacks10  the 

"These  three  parts  are  Englished  by  Mathers. 
i    10Buddeus  in  Iiitroductio  in  Historiam  Philosopliiae 
103 


THE    CABALA 

work  has  been  made  use  of  by  later  scholars, 
especially  by  Chr.  Schottgen  in  his  Horae  hebrai- 
cae  et  talmudicae  (Dresden,  1733)  and  Theologia 
Judacorum  de  Messia  (ibid.,  1742.) 

The  powerful  preponderance  of  the  religious 
and  ecclesiastical  interests,  as  well  as  those  of 
practical  politics  which  became  perceptible  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century,  giving  to 
the  mind  a  positive  impulse,  and  to  the  studies  a 
substantial  foundation,  arrested  the  further  de- 
velopment of  the  Cabala;  and  thus  it  came  about 
that  in  the  course  of  time  the  zeal  for  cabalistic 
studies  among  Christians  has  cooled.  It  has  be- 
come generally  understood  that  the  Cabala  and 
Christianity  are  two  different  things.  The  idea 
of  God  according  to  the  writings  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  is  entirely  different.  The  same 
is  the  case  with  the  notion  of  creation.  When 
the  first  triad  of  the  Sephiroth  (Crown,  Wisdom 
and  Intelligence)  is  referred  to  the  three  persons 
of  the  Deity,  their  inner  immanent  relation  is 
not  thereby  fully  expressed,  as  Christianity 
teaches  it.  The  three  Sephiroth  only  represent 
three  potencies  of  God  or  three  forms  of  his 
emanation,  the  other  Sephiroth  are  also  such  di- 

Hebraeorum  (Halle  1702)  calls  Knorr  von  Rosenroth's 
work  "confusum  et  obscurum  opus,  in  quo  necessaria 
cum  non  necessariis  utilia  cum  inutilibus,  confusa  sunt, 
et  in  unam  velut  chaos  conjecta."  Knorr  von  Rosenroth 
has  also  written  a  number  of  hymns. 

104 


CHRISTIANITY 

vine  powers  and  forms.  One  can  therefore 
rightly  say  that  the  Cabala  teaches  not  the  Trin- 
ity, but  the  Ten-Unity  of  God.  Also  the  other 
characteristics,  when  e.  g.  the  Zohar  ascribes  to 
God  three  heads;  or  when  it  speaks  of  a  God- 
Father  (abba)  of  a  God-Mother  (imma)  and  of 
a  God-Son;  or  when  we  are  told  (Zohar,  III, 
262a ;  comp.  67a)  that  "there  are  two,  and  one  is 
connected  with  them,  and  they  are  three;  but  in 
being  three,  they  are  one,"  this  does  not  coincide 
in  the  least  with  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.11 

In  one  codex  of  the  Zohar  we  read  on  the 
words  "Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  hosts" 
(Is.  vi.  3)  :  "the  first  'holy'  refers  to  the  Holy 
Father;  the  second  to  the  Holy  Son;  and  the 
third  to  the  Holy  Ghost" ;  but  this  passage  is  now 
omitted  from  the  present  recensions  of  the  Zo- 
har, and  has  been  regarded  by  some  Jewish  writ- 
ers as  an  interpolation.12 

As  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  the  God  incarnate 
— it  cannot  be  paralleled  with  the  confused  doc- 
trine of  Adam  Kadmon,  the  primordial  man.  Ac- 

"Compare  also  Bischoff,  Die  Kabbalah,  p.  26. 

12Compare  Joel,  Die  Religionsphilosophie  des  Sohar, 
Leipsic,  1849,  pp.  240  ff. — The  Zoharic  passages  referring 
to  the  Trinity  are  given  in  the  original  with  a  German 
translation  in  Ansziige  ans  dent  Buche  Sohar  (by  Tho- 
luck;  revised  by  Biesenthal),  Berlin,  1857;  4th  ed.,  1876; 
also  by  Pauli,  The  Great  Mystery;  or  How  Can  Three 
Be  One,  London,  1863. 

105 


THE   CABALA 

cording  to  the  Christian  notion  the  reconciliation 
is  effected  only  through  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ; 
according  to  the  Cabala  man  can  redeem  himself 
by  means  of  a  strict  observance  of  the  law,  by  as- 
ceticism and  other  means  whereby  he  influences 
God  and  the  world  of  light  in  a  mystical  manner. 
For  the  benefit  of  the  reader  we  give  the  follow- 
ing passages  which  speak  of  the  atonement  of  the 
Messiah  for  the  sins  of  people,  passages  which 
are  given  as  the  explanation  of  the  fifty-third 
chapter  of  Isaiah.  "When  the  righteous  are  vis- 
ited with  sufferings,  and  afflictions  to  atone  for 
the  sins  of  the  world,*  is  that  they  might  atone  for 
all  the  sins  of  this  generation.  How  is  this 
proved  ?  By  all  the  members  of  the  body.  When 
all  members  suffer,  one  member  is  afflicted  in 
order  that  all  may  recover.  And  which  of  them  ? 
The  arm.  The  arm  is  beaten,  the  blood  is  taken 
from  it,  and  then  the  recovery  of  all  the  members 
of  the  body  is  secured.  So  it  is  with  the  children 
of  the  world;  they  are  members  of  one  another. 
When  the  Holy  One,  blessed  be  he,  wishes  the 
recovery  of  the  world,  he  afflicts  one  righteous 
from  their  midst,  and  for  his  sake  all  are  healed. 
How  is  this  shown?  It  is  written — 'He  was 
wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised 
for  our  iniquities.  .  .  .and  with  his  stripes 
we  are  healed'  (Is.  iii.  5)."  Zohar,  III,  218a. 
To  the  same  effect  is  the  following  passage: 


106 


CHRISTIANITY 

"Those  souls  which  tarry  in  the  nether  garden  of 
Eden  hover  about  the  world,  and  when  they  see 
suffering  or  patient  martyrs  and  those  who  suffer 
for  the  unity  of  God,  they  return  and  mention  it 
to  the  Messiah.  When  they  tell  the  Messiah  of 
the  afflictions  of  Israel  in  exile,  and  that  the  sin- 
ners among  them  do  not  reflect  in  order  to  know 
their  Lord,  he  raises  his  voice  and  weeps  because 
of  those  sinners,  as  it  is  written,  'he  is  wounded 
for  our  transgressions'  (Is.  liii.  5).  Whereupon 
those  souls  return  and  take  their  place.  In  the 
garden  of  Eden  there  is  one  place  which  is  called 
the  palace  of  the  sick.  The  Messiah  goes  into 
this  palace  and  invokes  all  the  sufferings,  pain  and 
afflictions  of  Israel  to  come  upon  him,  and  they 
all  come  upon  him.  Now  if  he  did  not  remove 
them  thus  and  take  them  upon  himself,  no  man 
could  endure  the  sufferings  of  Israel,  due  as  pun- 
ishment for  transgressing  the  Law ;  as  it  is  writ- 
ten— 'Surely  he  hath  borne  our  griefs  and  car- 
ried our  sorrows,'  etc.  (Is.  liii,  4  with  Rom.  xii. 
3,  4).  When  the  children  of  Israel  were  in  the 
Holy  Land  they  removed  all  those  sufferings  and 
afflictions  from  the  world  by  their  prayers  and 
sacrifices,  but  now  the  Messiah  removes  them 
from  the  world."  (Zohar,  II,  212b).  With  ref- 
erence to  these  passages13  which  speak  of  the 

13A  collection  of  the  passages  referring  to  the  aton- 
ing work  of  the  Messiah  is  given  in  Ausziige  aus  dem 

107 


THE  CABALA 

atonement  of  the  Messiah  for  the  sins  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  are  given  in  the  Zohar  as  the  explana- 
tion of  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  Professor 
Dalman14  remarks  that  the  Jews  reject  and  ob- 
ject to  cabalistic  statements  as  something  foreign 
to  genuine  Judaism.  The  theosophic  speculations 
of  the  Cabala  are  at  least  just  as  Jewish  as  the 
religious  philosophical  statements  of  Bachja  or 
Maimonides ;  yes,  it  seems  to  us  that  the  God  of 
revelation  and  of  scripture  is  more  honestly  re- 
tained in  the  former  than  in  the  latter,  where  he 
becomes  a  mathematical  One  without  attribute 
and  thereby  may  satisfy  a  superficial  reason,  but 
leaves  the  heart  empty.  That  these  Jewish  think- 
ers, influenced  by  Aristotle,  had  no  inclination  to 
find  in  Is.  liii  an  expiating  mediator,  is  only  too 
inexplicable.  He,  who  by  his  own  strength  can 
soar  into  the  sphere  of  "intelligences"  and  thus 
bring  his  soul  to  immortality,  needs  no  mediator. 
But  we  are  concerned  here  not  with  a  philosoph- 
ical or  theosophical  thought-complex,  but  the 
simple  question  whether  the  prophet  speaks  in 
Is.  liii  of  a  suffering  mediator  of  salvation.    The 

Buche  Sohar,  pp.  35  f .,  more  especially  in  Wiinsche,  Die 
Leiden  des  Messias,  Leipsic,  1870,  pp.  95-105;  and  by 
Dalman,  "Das  Kommen  des  Messias  nach  dem  Sohar" 
(in  Saat  auf  Hoffnung),  Leipsic,  1888,  pp.  148-160. 

"In  his  Jesaja  53,  das  Prophetenwort  von  Siihnlcidcn 
des  Heilandes  unit  besonderer  Berucksichtigung  dcr 
synagogalen  Literatar,  Leipsic,  1890. 

108 


CHRISTIANITY 

answer  of  the  Cabalists  at  any  rate  agrees  with 
the  testimony  of  many  of  them. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  the  Cabala?  That 
there  is  a  relationship  between  it  and  neo-Platon- 
ism  is  obvious.  Erich  Bischoff15  thinks  that  the 
Cabala  represents  a  peculiar  monism,  which  in 
some  degree  has  influenced  modern  philosophy. 
In  ethical  respects  it  contains  many  fruitful  and 
sublime  thoughts,  often  indeed  in  fanciful  word- 
ing. But  as  magic  it  has  been  of  great  influence 
on  all  kinds  of  superstitions  and  even  on  occult- 
istic  tendencies.  It  offers  a  highly  interesting  ob- 
ject of  study  whose  closer  investigation  is  ren- 
dered more  difficult  on  account  of  the  abtruse 
manner  of  representation  and  the  many  magic 
and  mystic  accessories.  But  that  which  is  valu- 
able is  sufficient  to  insure  for  it  a  lasting  interest. 

L'The  author  of  Die  Kabbalah.  Einfuhrung  in  die 
jiidische  Mystik  und  Geheimwissenschaft,  Leipsic,  1903. 


109 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The  following  references  are  given  for  the 
sake  of  those  who  may  be  sufficiently  interested 
in  the  subject  to  enter  further  into  its  details: 

Wolf,  Bibliotheca  Hebraea,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1191- 
1247,  Hamburg,  1728. 

Furst,  Bibliotheca  Judaica,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  320- 
325,  Leipsic,  1863. 

Brucker,  Kurtze  Fragen  aus  der  philosophi- 
ischen  Historic,  Vol.  IV.,  Ulm,  1733. 

Kleaker,  Ueber  die  Natur  und  den  Ursprung 
der  Emanationslehre  bei  den  Kabbalisten,  Riga, 
1786. 

Beer,  Geschichte  und  Meinungen  aller  be- 
standenen  und  noch  bestehenden  Sekten  der  Ju- 
den  und  der  Geheimlehre  oder  Kabbalah,  2  Vols., 
Brunn,  1823. 

Molitor,  Philosophie  der  Geschichte  oder  iiber 
die  Tradition,  4  Vols.,  Minister,  1827-1853;  2d. 
ed.,  1857. 

Freystadt,  Philosophia  cabbalistica;  Ex  fonti- 
bus  primariis  adumbravit  atque  inter  se  compar- 
avit,  Konigsberg,  1832;  Kabbalismus  und  Pan- 
theismus,  ibid.  1832. 

Tholuck,  Be  ortu  Cabbalae,  Hamburg,   1837. 

Hamberger,    die    hohe    Bedeutung    der    alt- 


jiidischen  Tradition  oder  dcr  sogenannten  Kab- 
balah, Sulzbach,  1844  (a  review  of  Molitor's 
work). 

Lutterbeck,  die  neutestamcntlichcn  Lchrbe- 
griffe,  Vol.  1.,  1853. 

Misses,  Zaphnath  Pan-each,  Darstellung  und 
Kritsche  Beleuchtung  der  jiidischen  Geheim- 
lehrc,  2  parts.     Cracow,  1862-63. 

Lichtenberger,  Enclypedie  des'  sciences  reli- 
gieuses,  art.  '"Cabale,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  497  ff.,  Paris, 
1878. 

Bloch,  Geschichte  der  Entwickelung  der  Kab- 
bah, Trier,  1894. 

Ehrenpreis,  Kabbalistische  Studien,  Part  1., 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1895. 

Vacant,  Dictionaire  de  thcologie  catholique, 
Paris,  1899,  ff.,  art.  "Cabale,"  Vol.  II,  1271-91. 

Wiinsche,  art.  "Kabbala"  in  Hcrzog-Hauck 
Realencyklopddie  fur  Protcstantische  Theologie 
und  Kirche,  Vol.  IX,  Leipsic,  1901. 

Bischoff,  die  Kabbalah;  Einfiihrung  in  die 
jiidische  Mystik  und  Geheimzvissenschaft,  Leip- 
sic, 1903  (treats  the  subject  in  a  catechetical  man- 
ner). 

Schiilein,  art.  "Kabbala"  in  Kirchlichcs  Hand- 
lexikon,  Miinchen,  1907,  ff.  Vol.  II,  255-257. 

We  have  purposely  refrained  from  referring 
to  the  historical  handbooks  of  D.  Cassel,  S.  Back, 
G.  Karpeles,  etc.,  because  they  offer  nothing  new 
from  a  critical  point  of  view ;  and  for  obvious 
reasons  we  make  no  mention  of  articles  on  the 
Cabala  in  English  Cyclopaedias. 


INDEX 


Abraham,  p.  21. 

Abulafia,    Abraham,    40;    tries 

to  convert  Pope  Martin  IV, 

42 ;     imagines     himself     the 

Messiah,   42. 
Abulafia,  Todros,  39. 
Adam,  book  of,   33. 
Agobard,  20. 
Akiba,  alphabet  of,   18. 
Allen,  4. 
Arithmetic,  theosophical,  22  et 

seq. 
Augustine,  87. 
Azariel,  33,  67. 

Baal-shem,   98. 

Bahir-book,      teaches      metem- 
psychosis,   35. 
Barnabas,  85. 
Bartolocci,   15,  58,  91. 
Basnage,  3. 
Beer,  22. 
Biesenthal,   105. 
Bischoff,   105,   109. 
Bodenschatz,   18. 
Boehme,  3. 
Bogratschoff,  99. 
Bonwetsch,  22. 
Buddeus,    104. 

Cabala,  name,  9 ;  origin,  12 ; 
development,  16 ;  most  im- 
portant doctrines  concerning 
men  and  creation,  66 ;  the 
realm  of  evil,  77 ;  psychol- 
ogy,     80;      metempsychosis, 


81  ;  mystical  interpretation, 
83 ;  hermeneutical  canons, 
85 ;  its  relation  to  Judaism, 
95;  to  Christianity,  100; 
does  not  teach  the  Trinity. 
105  ;  nor  the  Christ  of  the 
Christians,   106. 

Cassel,  D.,  99. 

Cassel,  P.,  75. 

Chasidim,  a  Jewish  sect,  98. 

Christ   called   Ichthys,   88. 

Cordovero,  57. 

Cyclop,  of  McClintock  and 
Strong,  13,  36,  40,  50,  51, 
57,  59,  61,  62,  63,  85,  94,  97, 
101. 

Dalman,  97,   108. 
Dodd,  88. 

Edersheim,   21. 

Elisha  ben-Abuja,    12. 

En  Soph,  34. 

Emanations,    treatise    on    the, 

37. 
Enoch,   Book  of,    19. 
Etheridge,  4. 
Eusebius,   22,   88. 
Eybenschiitz,  64. 

Fludd,   3. 
Franck,  5. 
Frank,  Jacob,  64. 

Galatino,  102. 
Geiger,   6. 


INDEX 


Gematria,  85. 

Gikatilla,  42. 

Gill,  4. 

Ginsburg,   7. 

God,  His  body  described,  18 ; 
is  endless  according  to  the 
Cabala,  66 ;  makes  Himself 
known  in  the  creation  by 
means  of  ten  Sephiroth  or 
emanations,  67,  77 ;  which 
are  divided  into  groups  and 
in  this  way  yield  three  dif- 
ferent forms  as  the  dia- 
grams show,  67 ;  the  emana- 
tions, representing  the  first 
manifestation  of  God  form 
an  ideal  world ;  from  which 
proceed  by  an  emanation  in 
different  gradations  four 
worlds,  74. 

Goldschmidt,  21. 

Graetz,  7,  52,  75. 

Griinbaum,  22. 

Gunsburg,  40. 

Helmont,   3. 
Heredia,  101. 
Horwitz,    60. 
Hottinger,   92. 

Interpretation,    mystical,   83. 
Isaac  the  Blind,   33;   father  of 

the  Cabala,   34. 
Ishmael  ben  Elisa,  13. 

Jehudah  Halevi,  21. 

Jellinek,  5,  6,  7,  17,  18,  19,  33, 

37,  52. 
Jezirah,  book  of,  20;  time  and 

place     of     composition,     20; 

contents,      21;      theosophical 

arithmetic,    22. 
Joel,    6,    105. 
Josephus,  80. 
Jost,   7. 
Juchasin,   52. 


Kahana,  99. 

Kawana,  doctrine  of,  82. 

Kircher,   18. 

Landauer,  6,  96. 

Latif  Ibn,   39,   74. 

Leon  de  Modena,  60,  61. 

Letters,  combination  of,  30. 

Longfellow,   38. 

Lully,  3,  100. 

Luria,   57,   58. 

Luzzatto,   65. 

Maasey  Merkaba  and  Bereshit, 
17. 

Maimonides,      14 ;      denounces 

mysticism,  19. 
Man  the  acme  of  creation,  79. 
Mathers,    8. 
Medigo,    Elias    del,    calls    the 

Zohar  a  forgery,  57. 
Messiah,      His      coming,      78; 

atonement  of,  106. 
Messiahship,  58;  teaches  super- 

foetatio,   82. 
Metatron,  25,  38,   75. 
Metempsychosis,   81. 
Midrash  Konen,   33. 
Milman,  4. 

Mirandola,  3,  55,  101. 
More,  3. 
Morinus,  51. 
Moses   de   Leon,   5 ;   author   of 

the  Zohar,  43. 

Nachmanides,   36. 

Nasir,   37,  74. 

Neale,  88. 

Nechunjah  Ben-Ha-Kanah,  13, 

35. 
Nettesheim,   3. 
Notarikon,   86. 
Number,   oracle,   86. 

Ophanim,   24,   38. 
Oracula  Sibyllina,   88. 


INDEX 


Orelli,  98. 
Origen,  80. 
Otto,   101. 

Paracelsus,  3. 
Pauli,   105. 
Perl,  99. 
Philo,  80,  81. 
Picard,   61. 
Pistorius,   101. 
Plato,  80,  81. 
Proclus,  67. 

Reuchlin,   3,   101. 

Ricci,    101. 

Rittengel,   101. 

Rosenroth,   Knorr  von,  43,  45, 

58,  103. 
Rubin,   96. 

Sabbatai,  Zebil,  61 ;  proclaims 
himself  the  Messiah,  em- 
braces Islamism,  62 ;  ruins 
thousands  of  Jewish  fami- 
lies, 63. 

Sachs,  6. 

Samael,  prince  of  darkness, 
77 ;  his  wife  called  the  har- 
lot,  78. 

Sandalphon,  25,  38. 

Schottgen,  104. 

Schurer,   81. 

Scripture    references : 

Genesis        XIV,        14,        86 

XXXVII,  3,  87. 
Exodus,     XIV,     19-21,     91 

XX,  20,  25. 
Ps.        XXXIV,        18,        18 

CXVIII,   22    102. 
Prov.  Ill,   13,  38. 
Isa.     VI,     2,     18;     3,     105 
LIII,  4,    107;   5,   106,   107 
Jer.    XXV,   26,   91. 


Ezek.    I,    20,   24. 

Rom.  XII,  3,  4,   107. 
Selig,   98. 
Sephiroth,  25,  34,  38;  opposed 

by   a    Sephirah    of   darkness, 

77. 
Seraphim,  24. 
Simon   ben   Jochai,   4,    5 ;    pre- 

existence  of  soul,  80. 
Steinschneider,  6. 
Stern,   7. 
Strack,  50. 

Superfoetatio,   doctrine   of,   82. 
Sandolphon,    38. 

Temurah,  91. 
Tetra  grammaton,  93. 
Tholuck,   105. 
Tziruph,   91. 

Vital,  continues  work  of  Luria, 
59 ;  has  many  adherents,  60. 

Wakkar,  endeavors  to  recon- 
cile the  Cabala  with  philos- 
ophy, 55. 

Westcott,  6. 

Wordsworth,  84. 

World,  the  present,  the  best, 
75. 

Wunsche,  20,  33,  93,  108. 

Zohar,  written  by  Moses  de 
Leon,  43  ;  its  supplementary 
portions,  46 ;  the  late  au- 
thorship proven  from  the 
reference  to  the  Crusades 
and  other  events,  51  ;  be- 
comes the  text-book  of  the 
Cabala,  54 ;  its  followers  de- 
nounce the  anti-Cabalists, 
56. 

Zunz,  6,  94. 


Date  Due 


— D" 


Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Spee 


Mill 
1   1012  01010  9496 


